Eli Tareq El Bechelany Lynch is this year's winner of the prestigious Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal! Their book of poetry The Good Arabs is the second English language book to win this award celebrating local talent and Quebec publishing for the past 60 years. So what makes good - and bad - Arabs? And which Lebanese pop star made Eli Tareq gay?
For only the second time since 1965, the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal, and its accompanying $15,000 grant, was awarded for literary work published in — hold your breath
Rest Days, a reading series which occurred on 18th July at 2pm, was designed to unite disabled and chronically ill poets in virtual space, and offer a portal to their thoughts. Just before it started, poet Kyla Jamieson, the event organizer, encouraged all attendees to take a deep breath and get comfortable, fully embracing the rest theme. All poets took turns to introduce themselves, discuss their works and add in any interesting anecdotes, and for those who weren’t able to make it live, pre-recorded videos of each reading is provided on the Rest Days Youtube. The following is a brief introduction to some of the poets who were in attendance: First there was Sho Yamagushiku, who acknowledged, as an immigrant, how they are seen as 24/7 work machines. He indicated that the work he read during the event, “Harmless Medicine” by Justin Chin, allowed him to understand himself more as an immigrant individual in a eurocentric society. His work is committed to telling