Combined, the editors of this anthology of new Montreal writing have been issuing small press books, chapbooks, comics and broadsheets for over a decade. One is Ottawa-based, providing an outsider's perspective, and the other works in the heart of the Montreal's anglophone under-ground. Collected here are many of the Montreal writers they have published over the past few years and who they believe are producing not only the best writing in Montreal, but some of the best writing, period. English writing in Montreal has had the distinction of being isolated from the rest of the country, left to stew in its own creative juices, with very few English-language presses and little support for English work. Consequently it has developed along alternate paths and has created its own vibrant culture. The spoken-word community in particular has become a source of envy outside the city. The writing in this anthology, international in scope, reflects the migratory nature of the anglophone community while drawing inspiration from the city itself. Some of these writers have only a handful of publication credits but put out chapbooks and perform constantly around town at a variety of impressive cabaret events. Others have a couple of books under their belt. Not always concerned with conventional styles, many of them are on the cusp of notoriety. The editors believe that this anthology will introduce a wider audience to this latest Montreal Renaissance. Included are: Catherine Kidd, Corey Frost, Billy Mavreas, Sue Elmslie, Tess Fragoulis, Anne Stone, Heather O'Neill, Liane Keightley, Ian Ferrier, Meg Sircom, Masarah Van Eyck, Lydia Eugene, Andy Brown, Valerie Joy Kalynchuk, Dana Bath, Jonathan Goldstein, Lance Blomgren, Yvette Poorter, David McGimpsey, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Dean Irvine, and Susan Gillis.

Andy Brown is the author of the short story collection I Can See You Being Invisible (D.C. Books, 2003) and founder of the acclaimed small publishing house Conundrum Press. He lives in Montreal.

Andy Brown's profile page

Born in Ottawa in 1970 at the late lamented Grace Hospital on Wellington Street near Parkdale Avenue, rob mclennan currently lives in directly between Ottawa`s Chinatown and Little Italy neighbourhoods, and was called "Centretown`s poet laureate" by David Gladstone in The Centretown Buzz in the mid-1990s. The author of twelve previous trade poetry collections in Canada and England, he has published poetry, fiction, interviews, reviews and columns in over two hundred publications in fourteen countries and in four languages, and done reading tours in five countries on two continents. The editor/publisher of above/ground press and the long poem magazine STANZAS (both founded in 1993), the online critical journal Poetics.ca (with Ottawa poet Stephen Brockwell) and the Ottawa poetry annual ottawater (ottawater.com), he edits the ongoing Cauldron Books series through Broken Jaw Press, edited the anthologies Evergreen: six new poets (Black Moss Press), side/lines: a new canadian poetics (Insomniac Press), GROUNDSWELL: the best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press) and Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets (Chaudiere Books), and runs the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair, which he co-founded in 1994, currently under the umbrella of the small press action network - ottawa (span-o), which he also runs. Fall 2007 sees the appearance of a new poetry collection with Ireland`s Salmon Publishing, a collection of literary essays appears with Toronto`s ECW Press, and a title for Vancouver publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, Ottawa: The Unknown City. His online home is at www.track0.com/rob_mclennan, and he often posts reviews, essays, rants and other nonsense at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com.

rob mclennan's profile page