Thursday July 23rd, 6pm
For a first time in its history, the Guido Molinari Foundation hosted two poets in writing residency as part of the exhibition Vent bleu. Vanessa Bell and Catherine Cormier-Larose drew inspiration from Molinari’s masterpiece in order to explore the thematic of the wind – a natural force, a vector of movement, the breath of life, a bodily sensation, and poetic expression.
Join us for the poets’ end of residency in an evening that blends conversation and poetry reading.
Free, no registration required.
Bar service on site.
Poet, performer, curator, and literary activist, Vanessa Bell is also the director of the poetry collection at Éditions du Quartz and a columnist for the magazine Les libraires. Her work in the literary arts has taken her to North America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. She is the author of the poetry collections De rivières (2019, La Peuplade) and MONUMENTS (2022, Le Noroît), the book Fendre les eaux : apprivoiser la baignade nordique (2023, De l’Homme), and co-editor of Anthologie de la poésie actuelle des femmes au Québec 2000 | 2020 (2021, Remue-ménage). Her writing is vivid and incisive, a whirlwind of audacity whose central themes are lineage, desire, and real and imagined territories. Her work and her commitment have earned her numerous grants and awards in Quebec and internationally. Under the mentorship of Nicole Brossard, Vanessa Bell is the first Francophone Canadian to be supported by the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Rising Stars program.
Catherine Cormier-Larose is an art historian, critic, and curator. She has published in numerous journals, fanzines, and anthologies. She co-edited Kaléidoscope : Anthologie de poésie québécoise français-arabe with Nora Atalla (Sidi Bou Saïd International Poetry Festival, 2024) and Anthologie de la poésie actuelle des femmes au Québec 2000 | 2020 with Vanessa Bell (Remue-ménage, 2021). Her most recent collection is Vickie (Fond’tonne, 2021), and her first collection, L’avion est un réflexe court (Del Busso, 2017), will soon be translated into English. She has performed and hosted events on various stages throughout Quebec and abroad. Cormier-Larose is also the artistic and executive director of the Festival de la poésie de Montréal.
