IX. year of literary festival

Month of Authors’ Readings

1. 7. – 31. 7. 2008 (an author each day)

Guest of Honour: Canada

Goose on the Leash Theatre, Brno, Czech Republic


This year’s literary summer in the Central Europe will be in the name of Canadian literature.
Exactly thirty two authors from Canada will arrive to Brno to read their works at a literary
festival The Month of Author’s Readings (the biggest Czech literary event of this kind).  There are
nineteen authors representing the Anglophone part of the country and thirteen representing the
Francophone part of Canada.  The festival offers all scents, shades and tones of contemporary
Canadian literature. The programme has been complied with an intention to provide complex and
illustrative picture of today’s Canadian literary scene and puts an emphasis on overlaps with Czech
cultural context and the wider region of all Central.

Each July evening (from July 1^st to July 31^st) there will be one Canadian author reading at a
legendary Brno Goose on the Leash Theatre located in the heart of Brno. The readings start at 6
p.m. with the Canadians followed by Czech authors two hours later.

The readings of Canadian authors will be performed in their native tongue (Czech translations will
be projected on a screen by means of stereopticon). All productions will be broadcasted on-line on
the web pages of the festival www.autorskecteni.cz and then will be available later at an archive,
where the programme and annotations of single evenings can already be found.  After the reading, a
moderated discussion, which the audience may enter into with a question, will follow. The entrance
fee to all the readings is voluntary.

The Month of Authors’ Readings is a literary festival that was established in Brno in the year of
2000. Every year in July one Czech and one foreign author is presented. In 2005, the guest of
Honour was Slovak literature, a year later it was Berlin literature and last year it was the
Byelorussia’s literary scene. The year of 2008 is devoted to Canadian literature and the best it
may offer the world within the limits of cultural export.

The festival takes place under the patronage of His Excellency Michael A. Calcott the ambassador of
Canada in the Czech Republic.

Festival Partners: Canada Council, Québec Council Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the
Statutory City of Brno, The South Moravian Region, Masaryk University in Brno (Department of Roman
Languages, Department of English and American studies, Central European Association of Canadian
Studies),  Canadian Embassy in the Czech Republic etc.


Accommodation:

If you decide to visit the festival in Brno and experience unforgettable moments with literature we
are ready to help you and offer the following services:

-         accommodation reservation (various prices, eventually inexpensive accommodation for
students, cca 17€/night; accommodation with a good deal for groups of students in sleeping bags –
from 3€/night),

-         interpreting and translating service,

-         festival catalogue, every possible information,

-         help on the spot.

More information on The Month of Authors’ Readings can be found at www.autorskecteni.cz or email
jitka@autorskecteni.cz, (mob. 00420/ 739 610 760).


Program – Canadian section:

1. 7.  Lee Henderson

2. 7.  Marcus Youssef & Gullermo Verdecchia

3. 7.  George Eliot Clarke

4. 7.  Sheila Heti

5. 7.  Jason Sherman

6. 7.  Nicole Brossard

7. 7.  Denise Desautels

8. 7. Eden Robinson

9. 7. Louise Dupré

10. 7. Lee Maracle

11. 7.  J. - F. Chassay

12. 7.  Martine Audet

13. 7.  Élise Turcotte

14. 7.  Sylvie Massicotte

15. 7.  Hélène Rioux

16. 7.  Pascal Millet

17. 7.  Aritha van Herk

18. 7.  André Roy

19. 7.  Jan Zwicky

20. 7.  Robert Bringhurst

21. 7.  Lynn Coady

22. 7.  Madeleine Gagnon

23. 7.  Alison Pick

24. 7.  Louise Desjardins

25. 7.  Ken Babstock

26. 7.  Francois Barcelo

27. 7.  Thomas Wharton

28. 7.  Sharon Butala

29. 7.  Madeleine Thien

30. 7.  Ray Robertson

31. 7.  Michael Crummey