The Department of English will welcome Metonymy Press as this year’s Richler Writer-in-Residence. Co-founded by Ashley Fortier and Oliver Fugler in 2014, Metonymy Press is based in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal), unceded Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory and publishes literary fiction and nonfiction by emerging writers in the hope of reducing barriers to publishing for authors whose perspectives are underrepresented.
“We are thrilled to welcome press co-founders Ashley Fortier and Oliver Fugler, along with Metonymy writers and editors,” says Professor Erin Hurley, Chair of the Department of English. “The events curated by Professor Alanna Thain promise rich and lively discussions about small-press publishing, YA literature, translation and more.”
Metonymy Press is the first collective and the first publishing house to take up the Richler Writer-in-Residence. Their editors and writers will also be holding office hours during the semester, which will allow them to mentor and advise students on their own creative works.
“This residency gives the McGill community a chance to be in conversation with writers and editors who see their work as a way of building and sustaining community, through publishing books that draw you in and open up the world,” says Professor Alanna Thain.
Thain, who oversees the Visiting Speaker program for the Department of English, has been working closely with Metonymy Press to curate a varied list of events that will surely speak to McGill students’ interest and desire for more creative practice as part of their university experience.
Metonymy Press was born from Fortier and Fugler’s mutual desire to see more queer and trans literature from writers within the communities they belong to. Indeed, the press has committed itself to showcasing a variety of literary works that transgress boundaries and are looking forward to the opportunity of sharing their work and the press’s mission statement with the wider McGill community.
Read the Faculty of Arts’ interview Ashley Fortier and Oliver Fugler
Consult the schedule of events for the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence