Submissions for the 2026 competition are open!
The Montreal International Poetry Prize is committed to encouraging the creation of original works of poetry, to building international readerships, and to exploring the world’s Englishes.
Professor Alexander Manshel has won the MELUS Book Award
Congratulations to Professor Manshel for winning the MELUS Book Award!Professor Alexander Manshel has won the 2023-2024 MELUS Book Award for Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon. The awards committee judged it the most outstanding book published between 2023 and 2024 for both its
Professor Erin Hurley receives SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Congratulations to Professor Erin Hurley for receiving a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant!Professor Erin Hurley will lead a project exploring the rich history and cultural significance of Montreal’s Centaur Theatre as it approaches its 60th anniversary in 2028.
Carmen Faye Mathes Has Been Awarded the 2025 Keats-Shelley Association Essay Prize
Congratulations to Professor Carmen Faye Mathes!Professor Mathes has been awared the 2025 Keats-Shelley Association Essay Prize for her essay “Apostrophe’s Occasions: Two Postures of Abolitionist Address.”
The committee writes:
Ricardo Wilson is the 2025-26 Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence
The Department of English is delighted to announce Professor Ricardo Wilson as the 2025-2026 Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence.
Camille Owens Receives Honorable Mention for "Like Children"
Congratulations to Professor Camille Owens! Professor Owens received an honorable mention from the Modern Language Association of America for her book Like Children: Black Prodigy and the Measure of the Human in America.The committee writes: "Camille Owens’s Like Children: Black Prodigy and the Measure of the Human in America is a groundbreaking study of the “Black prodigy” and
Prof. Sandeep Banerjee on CBC Ideas
Professor Sandeep Banerjee was a guest in the CBC Ideas episode "How this 19th-century Indian feminist flipped the colonial travelogue on its head." Listen to the episode
Professor Manshel's 'Writing Backwards' was awarded the 2026 Perkins Prize!
The Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Prize is awarded to 'Writing Backwards', Professor Manshel's recent book!Established in 1994, the Perkins Prize honors Barbara Perkins and George Perkins, the founders of both The Journal of Narrative Technique and the Society itself. The prize is awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year.
Professor Nathalie Cooke appointed to Royal Society of Canada
Congratulations to Professor Nathalie Cooke on her election as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada!Professor Cooke was elected a Fellow to the
Nathalie Cooke's Latest Book: Tastes and Traditions
Tastes and Traditions: A Journey Through Menu History by Professor Nathalie Cooke
Feminist pedagogy through creative assessments
Zine-making 101: Feminist pedagogy through creative assessmentsWhen Postdoctoral Fellow Amanda Greer developed the syllabus for her course, ENGL391: Girlhood Cinemas, she wanted to ensure that girlhood was taken seriously as an experience directly impacting visual culture. Greer wanted to create an assignment that allowed students to communicate their ideas through girlhood aesthetics.
Professor Manshel's "Writing Backwards" released as an audiobook
Associate Professor Alexander Manshel's publication Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon (Columbia University Press, 2023) has been released as an audiobook by University Press Audiobooks.
English PhD candidate heads Montreal’s first trans film festival
English PhD candidate, Iris Pintiuta, created Exposure, Montreal's first trans film festival. The festival aims to promote inclusive representation for trans people, as well as create programs and events that advance trans acceptance.
Creative Writing Prizes and Awards 2025
The MONA ADILMAN PRIZE IN POETRY, for one student, estimated value $500, or for two students, estimated value $250, is open to undergraduate or graduate students registered in the Faculty of Arts for the best poem or group of poems relating to ecological or environmental concerns.
PhD Candidate Jay Ritchie on his latest book "Listening in Many Publics"
Jay Ritchie, PhD Candidate in the Department of English, spoke to the Faculty of Arts about his newest collection of poems 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘴, shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry.