Collections of Yahia Lababidi’s Verses and Aphorisms: Desert Songs and Learning to Pray Yahia Lababidi describes Desert Songs as “a slender love letter to the deserts of Egypt.” The poems in Arabic with English translations by Osama Esber and photographs […]
Contributors
nilambri ghai
Walls You tell me you are not like me. Nor am I like you, but obliterating my thoughts, my feelings, my senses was not yours to do. It was my place as well as yours and if I chose not […]
a moving collage of essays, conversations, aphorisms, poems, interviews and reflections
Québec has just passed Bill 21, which bans many Québecers from holding positions of authority in the public service ostensibly to extend the appearance of ‘neutrality’ of the state. There has been a loud cry of praise for protecting […]
Maru and the Maple Leaf by Uma Parameswaran, Larkuma Publishing, 2016 (367 pages) Uma Parameswaran, a retired professor of English (University of Winnipeg) and well known author with a special interest in women’s literature and South Asian culture, has […]
Radius Islamicus by Julian Samuel, Guernica Editions, 2018 “The radius islamicus is the farthest distance a camel part is thrown from the blast centre.” The narrator of Julian Samuel’s second novel is a “stateless” leader who supposedly spent more […]
A certain element of uncertainty and adventure motivates me.
We are the rational and sensible ones with access to almost every piece of information over the Internet. We are intelligent, sentient beings.
November: Poems by Jaspreet Singh, Bayeux Arts, July 2017 Jaspreet Singh’s new anthology of poems, November, is about memories of pain, grief, migration and mourning, following the 1984 mass murder of Sikhs across India, and the loss – thirty years […]
I believe that poets have a moral responsibility to speak up for those whose own voices have been suppressed or altogether silenced.
Thirty years ago, in November 1986, we launched our very first issue of Montréal Serai. While commemorating this important milestone, we are proud to announce that Serai’s contribution to the promotion of literary arts has been recognized through the Quebec Writers’ […]
India in the 1960s. We were growing up very quickly, and could not imagine the luxury of a boudoir, or even a room of one’s own, closed to others.
Today, Peshawar is again in the hands of those who like to play with fire.
Here I was, a seventy-year old Canadian artist, and yet I found the garment workers in Bangladesh eager to participate and to be part of something.
En route to Europe and Asia, I find graffiti everywhere on streets and train stations in Copenhagen. Many words on the graffiti look for peace in an unstable world. Others look for a world without borders or simply a place […]
“She is a liar and a cheat. She is an elephant. She is my wife.” And it was the end of an almost perfect day. She thought of her beautiful daughters and her grandchildren. She counted on her fingers […]
Resilience and Triumph: Immigrant Women Tell their Stories (Second Story Press) is a collection of writings by over 45 women from diverse cultural, linguistic, religious and national backgrounds. Edited and compiled collectively by a group of seven women, it is […]
The temperature had finally settled down to a mild -15 degrees in Ottawa when Louise Crandall and I sat down to discuss the new Supreme Court Ruling over Physician Assisted Suicide. Louise has worked for three health organizations including […]
[The Beautiful West and the Beloved of God, Michael Springate, Guernica Editions, 2014] Michael’s Springate’s first novel, The Beautiful West and the Beloved of God, is a powerful book set in Montreal and Cairo in the year 2008. Mahfouz […]
I share a room in the geriatric ward With another who can speak A language everyone understands. I feel my body shrink My mind grow in anticipation of a visit I try to hold Try to keep Try […]
Beliefs are strange phenomena. They define our values and principles. Some of us hold them close to our hearts, whereas others reject them as baseless and unreal. Although they inform our most important social systems, they are neither rational nor […]
GREETINGS [Children growing up in South Asian homes often have to choose from diverse forms of greetings, each one representing a set of beliefs or religious denomination. The common greeting, Namaste or Namaskar with hands folded, is used to address […]
Although humanity today seems dangerously close to a precipitous fall caused by an unmatched desire for growth, we also have before us the never-before-experienced ability to connect, transform, de-create and disrupt. What kind of a world will there be in […]
The Monarch butterfly can travel up to 2,500 miles across “borderless” lands to seek warmth and nourishment for its larvae. The wildebeest journeys through the Serengeti forming part of the largest mammalian migration in the world. And the Arctic […]
The Chinese in Toronto from 1878: From Outside to Inside the Circle By Arlene Chan Dundurn Natural Heritage. Toronto: 2011 Arlene Chan’s book is a historic gem chronicling the remarkable journey of Chinese Canadians, and their success in moving from […]
Bloomsbury, New York: 2013 Jaspreet Singh’s new novel, Helium, is about Raj Kumar, a scientist with a doctorate in Chemistry from Cornell University and an undergraduate degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. After an absence […]
Voting Rights for Women Seventy-three years ago, on April 25, 1940, Bill 18 was passed, putting an end to electoral discrimination against women. Québec women were finally be able to vote and stand for office. This was a culmination of […]
Annie (Kishkwanakwad) Smith St-George is a well-recognized Algonquin Elder, born and raised on the Kitigan-Zibi reserve near Maniwaki, Quebec. She was the founder of Kumik, the Elders Lodge (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) established in the early 1990s following the […]
Canada supports one of the most expensive education systems in the world; yet four out of 10 graduates from the secondary school system do not have the minimum level of essential skills required to function adequately within the workforce. […]
Phula did not look tall enough for a twelve-year-old, but that was the age she went by. It had been decided for her much before she could remember. Her eyes had an unforgettable stare as they opened wide and looked […]
Anne Cimon’s new novella, A Room on the Mountain, (Gemma Books, Greenfield Park, Québec), is a story of grief, following the loss of a beloved spouse. It is told by Caroline Sauvé, a fifty-year-old journalist, waiting for heart surgery in […]
Who made us and our world? The questionhas baffled humans for centuries, and resulted in stories known as the “myths of creation.” Based on oral tradition, many of these myths have been told and retold in different versions. They have […]
Serai Sands A decade slips by A millennium approaches And we return To search for new Serais For blinded and stunned travellers… Collectors of treasure boxes… Each grain taken away, one by one Till there is just one left In […]
CUTTING THROUGH THE CONSTITUTIONAL SMOKESCREEN Serai: Madame Parent, since you have seen so much and participated in so much that has now become Quebec’s past, could you describe your aspirations as a Quebecer from a broad, historical perspective? Parent: I’m […]
Dr. Rita Shakuntala Nowry, a family physician in obstetrics has been in Montreal since 1967. One of the pioneer women doctors from a South Asian country, she is a well known figure in the community. She has been on the […]
