Letters From Montreal

Letters From Montreal documents the experiences of Montrealers past and present, creating a portrait of the storied city unlike any other. Drawn from the celebrated column in Maisonneuve magazine, this anthology features writers documenting a quintessential part of local life. Narrated with the intimacy of journal entries, each letter bridges the playful and profound. In early dispatches, Melissa Bull ditches a boyfriend over petanque in Parc Laurier; Sean Michaels watches Arcade Fire lose Battle of the Bands; Deborah Ostrovsky frets over the sublime sophistication of the Plateau's French children. More recently, Ziya Jones spends a summer herding sheep through Parc du Pelican; Eva Crocker performs in a "fake orgasm choir" at the Rialto Theatre; and Andre Picard takes a pause from the pandemic by running up Mount Royal. Edited by Maisonneuve editor in chief Madi Haslam, these letters buzz with a sense of possibility, surprise, and transformation. They remind us that a city can't quite be defined, that every person inside it interprets it anew. Together, they explore how we make meaning in the place we call home-how our surroundings shape us, and how we shape them in return.