Blue Metropolis is the name for the Montreal International Literary Festival. Also known as Blue Met, is the world's first multilingual literary festival and has been held annually in Montreal since April 1999. It was founded by Montreal writer Linda Leith.
The Blue Metropolis Foundation, which organizes the festival and year-round literary and educational events, was founded in 1997. The first festival took place in April 1999. In 2010, the 12th Blue Met brought together 250 writers, literary translators, illustrators, musicians, actors, journalists and publishers from all around the world for nearly 200 different events in French and in English, with some events taking place entirely in Spanish, Italian, Arabic, German and Portuguese.
Simultaneous translation is not normally provided. Instead, the festival publicizes the language of their events, advertises them in the communities concerned, and thus draws the public that speaks the languages of its events. The festival is viewed as a model of inclusion of immigrant and minority communities; its public is often bilingual and sometimes trilingual or multilingual.
In 2008, the festival added the Blue Metropolis Children's Festival, which puts authors for children and young adults in touch with the 12-and-unders at events taking place in various locations, such as public libraries, all over Montreal.
The Foundation's international activities are expanding, including editions of the Blue Metropolis Translation Slam as the only literary events featured at the Canadian pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
The Festival awards the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prize annually on the opening night of the festival. Past winners are:
The Festival also awards the Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize. Named after the poet Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher, the prize was initiated in 2007 and is worth CAD 5000. The prize is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. Dr Issa J. Boullata serves as consultant for the prize.
Past winners of the Ibn Dhaher prize are: