David Foenkinos, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Éric Chacour at the 15th Quebec in all letters

On the lookout, passers-by who will be walking in the central districts of Quebec City, from October 17 to 27, will have to keep their eyes open… but also their ears pricked up.

Because Québec en toutes lettres intends to offer three new “audio” features in public spaces this year.

While the Hairdressing salon will set up at Place d’Youville to deliver “disheveled” texts under hairdressing helmets, the Trees Project will invite the public to take a seat for 25 minutes in a car parked in St-Roch to reflect on the issue of the environment.

With Narrative Sedimentthe curious will have to lie down on the ground, in the park of the Îlot des Palais. With the ear close to the “buried audio device”, the public will be able to feel certain vibrations and dive into the imagination of urban tales.

According to Julie Veillet, the new programming manager for Québec en toutes lettres, this new offering will make it possible to reach out to a different audience.

“We realize that embarrassment sometimes holds people back. Sitting down with an artist who is going to perform his text is intimidating for some people, especially when it is a first contact with the literary arts,” she notes, in an interview with Sun.

Intimate and closer to the act of reading, this audio proposal will open a door to the rest of the programming, hopes the person who has worked at the Maison de la littérature since its opening.

For more visual passersby, a mural is already being installed behind the Quebec General Hospital. The work, by Fred Jourdain, is imbued with the words of poet Sylvie Nicolas.

Lovers of This is not an adBonbons à lire or even the “troupe of acrobats” The ephemerals need not worry: these projects will also be back this fall.

Always awaited, the postmen and postwomen will also be there to drop the words of Gabrielle Harrisson, Lux and Madame Desmeules in the mailboxes. New: postal mailings will take place in order to reach the boroughs of Quebec.

Even closer to the people

Julie Veillet has noticed this for several years: the literary community in Quebec is dynamic and creative. For a festival like Québec en toutes lettres, the challenge is therefore not to produce or distribute works, but to prove to the general public that literature is not just a “solitary act.”

“People still see literature as something you do at home, which is quiet. They don’t know much about the literary arts, which consist of taking literature out of the book and bringing it into contact with other mediums,” explains the former proofreader of Sun.

Far from thinking that there is a lack of interest in this discipline, Julie Veillet believes that we simply need to make it more widely known to as many people as possible.

With the course Through the gaps of timenew festival-goers and nostalgics will also be able to (re)discover some highlights from past editions of the festival. Several artists including Simon Boulerice, Erika Soucy, Audrée Wilhelmy, Catherine Voyer-Léger and Andrée Levesque Sioui are expected for the occasion.

Among the five shows on the program, a musical reading of the work River Woman by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette will also be presented at La Nef. Although she will not be on stage, the popular writer will meet the audience at the end of the evening.

In addition to the round tables, a few interviews with authors from here and elsewhere are also on the program. The public will have the opportunity to meet French writer David Foenkinos, Italian novelist Piergiorgio Pulixi and Quebec author Mireille Gagné.

In addition to its school component, Québec en toutes lettres will offer several activities for families, including the show Melody Merle, the rare bird by Yannick Villedieu as well as a reading of the Secret of Happy Monsters. Meetings with the illustrator Félix Girard are also on the calendar.

The Québec en toutes lettres festival will take place from October 17 to 27. For more details, visit the event website.