Blue Meridian: Literature in Place and Time

Daniel Canty discovered the title of his current manuscript through a colour swatch – a grayish blue, numbered 105 BB 3 – pinned on the wall of a friend’s workshop. Blue Meridian draws an imaginary line connecting fictional versions of real-world cities: Vancouver, London, Cerberus, Copenhagen, Prague, Montréal, Laval and Tokyo. It names a colour in the air, a wavering boundary between world and mind, revealing the misty contours of a personal map of the world. Fortuitous events, once recognized as literary, can steadily shape-shift into fictions. The stories that will compose the book, by weaving the stuff of memory with the mythological, historical and literary heritage of each city, open up uncanny vistas, where one can touch upon the reality of the imaginary. In their discussion Daniel Canty and Hal Wake will focus on the living forces that lend shape to a book, and on the power of fiction to fold itself in time and place and alter the fabric of reality.

Daniel Canty is a writer and artist living in Montréal. His directorial debut, in 1999, was an online adaptation of Alan Lightman’s novel Einstein’s Dreams. Since the end of the 20th century, he has made books, films, interfaces and installations. He was also the dramaturg of numerous stage works and the translator of diverse works of poetry and prose. His works of fiction and nonfiction, and all shades in between, include Wigrum, The United States of Wind, VVV, Mappemonde, La Société des grands fonds and the online serial Costumes nationaux. In addition to writing books, Daniel directs their shaping, or mise en livre. This term came to light during the creation of the Table des matières trilogy: Cité selon, La table des matières and Le livre de chevet, are collective books whose material and graphical form intimately reflect the themes and texts that course through them. Daniel studied literature and the philosophy and history of science in Montréal, publishing in Vancouver, and film in New York. He has taught literature and design at l’Université du Québec à Montréal and writing at the National Theatre School of Canada. In 2014, he was artist-in-residence at the Studio du Québec in London and was elected to the Québec Academy of Letters in 2017.

danielcanty.com costumesnationaux.com letableaudesdeparts.com lasocietedesgrandsfonds.com latabledesmatieres.com obxlabs.net/ay-one/

Hal Wake has been engaged with the literary community in Canada for more than 30 years. He has conducted on-stage interviews with Alice Munro, Jonathan Safran Foer, Salman Rushdie, Sharon Olds, Rohinton Mistry Michael Chabon, Joseph Boyden and Anne Michaels amongst many others. In the mid '80's he was the book producer for the most influential public radio program in Canada, Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He has hosted or moderated hundreds of literary events at Festivals in Vancouver, Victoria, Sechelt, New York, London (UK), Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney Australia. His reviews have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Georgia Straight, and the Vancouver Sun. He is an Honorary Member of the Writers Union of Canada and he was the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Writers Fest until 2017.