Founded in 1975 in the wake of Canada’s official ratification of multiculturalism, the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures has, over more than 50 years, emerged as Canada’s premier association for showcasing multilingual and transnational research in Canadian and Québec literatures. 

As the ACQL seeks to provide accessible and affordable conference opportunities to students and scholars, the association proposes both in-person and online conferences on a yearly rotational basis. Last year’s in-person conference was held on the campus of McGill University, Montréal, in collaboration with the Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA). 

This coming Spring 2027, the ACQL is once again hosting an ONLINE CONFERENCE.

DATE:  Monday, May 31^st to Wednesday, June 2^nd 2027.

We understand the value of in-person gatherings; however the ACQL hopes that this virtual meeting will provide Canadian and international students and scholars with an affordable platform to share their research at a time of funding cuts, while also reducing our environmental impact. 

We will meet again in person in 2028.  

Theme 2027: Rivalries, Revolts and Resolutions 

The ACQL always welcomes a broad range of talks, with proposals encouraged across diverse themes and perspectives. This spring, we also invite you to reflect more specifically on the topic of rivalries, revolts and resolutions in the wake of  antagonisms within Canada and its current relations with the USA. This broad tripart theme also evokes many other past and on-going socio-political situations across the globe and thus lends itself to a wide variety of analyses. The theme is NOT intended to restrict the scope of proposals, but rather to encourage scholars to reflect on conflicts, contestation, and reconciliatory efforts, as represented in the literature and cinema produced in both English and French in Canada. 

Among the immediate questions that scholars may ask themselves are how authors, poets, filmmakers, essay writers and others go about describing the development of rivalries in their works. What issues and rights are involved in interpersonal or collective competition and clashes? How do situations escalate and what are the actions taken by individuals and groups regarding resolutions or other means of moving forward? How does the form of the work, publication context, and other such questions contribute to our understanding of difficult situations or, at times, seemingly irreconcilable differences? 

Proposals 

Talks can be given in either English or French. As the ACQL constantly strives to embody an equitable and inclusive association, we encourage bilingual sessions, as well as thematic and methodological research on literature and cinema focusing on issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization as they intersect with language, class, gender, sexuality, handicap, and other sites of social hierarchies and oppression. 

We seek proposals for a variety of session types: 

• Paper Panel: Panelists present a formal paper of 15-20 minutes, followed by questions and discussion.

• Member Organized Sessions: Panel organizers may present their own papers in the session that they organize.

• Seminar Workshop: Participants complete their papers in advance and distribute them to other seminar participants prior to the conference. Participants are encouraged to limit their presentations to 8-12 minutes to promote a substantial discussion period. 

• Roundtable: Participants give brief presentations (roughly 5-10 minutes) in response to a specific question or concern, followed by discussion and debate with the audience. 

• Pecha Kucha: 20 images are displayed for 20 seconds each, with explanation or commentary keyed to the images. 

• Professional Development Workshop: Intensive presentations led by a moderator, revolving around issues of professional development that are of specific relevance to stages of their academic careers. 

Submission Deadline

1. Panels – Sunday, January 31^st 2027 (with individual summaries of each proposed talk)

2. Individual talks – Sunday, February 21^st 2027 

Please specify (if applicable) in your submission (in WORD or RTF)

1. Title of your paper 

2. Concise summary (300 word max) of your talk. 

3. Nature of your presentation (traditional 20-min talk, poster, Pecha Kucha, etc.)

4. Title (professor, independent researcher, student) and a short biographical note

5. Institutional affiliation

Email address for submissions: alcq.acql@gmail.com.

ACQL Membership and Conference Fees

1. Presenters at the 2027 online conference require up-to-date ACQL membership(before the online conference takes place).

2. As this year’s ACQL conference is online, there will be NO registration fees.

3. Members are reminded that the ACQL awards the Gabrielle Roy Prize to outstanding critical works and thus invites participants to donate to the prize. 

4. See the ACQL website (www.alcq-acql.ca) for membership and registration information.

The winner for the French-language edition of the Gabrielle Roy Prize (2025) is Alex Noël for Les dépossessions romanesques. Lecture de la négativité chez Anne Hébert, Gabrielle Roy et Réjean Ducharme (Presses universitaires de l’Université de Montréal, 2024). 

https://pum.umontreal.ca/catalogue/les_depossessions_romanesques

The winner of the Barbara Godard Prize 2026 (best student talk) is Saumya Devrani for “Surveillance genrée et intervention d’un tiers : une étude de La version de Marthe Chevrier de Suzanne Jacob.” 

The conference is in Montréal on the McGill University Campus from June 8^th to 10^th 2026. 

Click below to view or download the program for the 2026 conference.

Congratulations to our 4 finalists !

The winner will be announced at the Gabrielle Roy Prize Ceremony held during the conference (June 8-10th, 2026, McGill University, Montreal) 

1. Simone Chaput : espaces, cultures et identités, sous la direction d’Adina Balint, Irène Chassaing, Lise Gaboury-Diallo et Jimmy Thibeault (Éditions David) 

2. Traversées et franchissements de frontières. Hommage à Janet M. Paterson, sous la direction de Karin Schwerdtner, Catherine Khordoc et Tara Collington (Éditions David) 

    3. Urbanités autochtones en création. Sous la direction de Marie-Ève Bradette, Julie Graff, Gabrielle Marcoux et Alexia Pinto Ferretti (Presses de l’Université de Montréal) 

    4. Les dépossessions romanesques. Lecture de la négativité chez Anne Hébert, Gabrielle Roy et         Réjean Ducharme. Alex Noël (Presses de l’Université de Montréal)

The 2024 winner of the Gabrielle Roy Prize is Susie O’Brien for their book, What the World Might Look Like: Decolonial Stories of Resilience and Refusal. McGill-Queen’s UP, 2024. 

The GR Prize Francophone Section was not awarded.

The ACQL/ALCQ Executive committee is currently working on firming up a date and place for an in-person 2026 Conference. At the moment, we are looking at Montreal in early June. 

As soon as we have the dates and place confirmed, we will post this on the website and announce this to our members. We will also post this on other relative websites related to conferences. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We are still looking for people to occupy positions on the Executive committee. 

Sincerely

ACQL Exec. 

Susie O’Brien, What the World Might Look Like: Decolonial Stories of Resilience and Refusal

Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.

View the book on the publisher’s site »

Please note that no prize was awarded this year for the French-language section. As always, the Gabrielle Roy Prize is awarded for books published in the previous calendar year.

Founded in 1975 in the wake of Canada’s official ratification of multiculturalism, the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures has, over more than 45 years, emerged as Canada’s premier association for showcasing multilingual and transnational research in Canadian and Québec literatures. 

As last year’s scheduled conference on “Sustaining shared futures” at Congress at McGill University was cancelled, the ACQL is proposing this year to host an ONLINE CONFERENCE between Friday, May 23^rd and Sunday, May 25^th. 

While we understand the value of in-person gatherings, the ACQL hopes that this virtual meeting will allow greater participation, reduce our environmental impact, and allow participants whose talks were previously accepted to present their research. 

Conference Fees and ACQL Membership 

• There are no conference fees. Participation does, however, require up-to-date ACQL membership. 

• Members from ACQL (April 1^st 2023-March 30^th 2024) are not required to renew memberships in order to present in 2025. 

• Those who are not registered as members and who wish to present must become members before the Online conference. 

The Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures (ACQL) is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2024 Gabrielle Roy Prize (English section), which each year honours the best work of Canadian literary criticism published in English.

This year’s shortlisted finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

Jennifer Andrews. Canada Through American Eyes: Literature and Canadian Exceptionalism. Palgrave Macmillan. 2023. 

Paul Huebener. Restless in Sleep Country: Imagination and the Cultural Politics of Sleep. McGill-Queen’s UP, 2024.

Susie O’Brien. What the World Might Look Like: Decolonial Stories of Resilience and Refusal. McGill-Queen’s UP, 2024. 

The shortlist was chosen by a jury composed of Nicholas Bradley (University of Victoria), Laurel Ryan (University of Louisiana at Lafayette), and Steven Urquhart (University of Lethbridge). 

The winner will be announced publicly on Saturday, May 24, 2025 at the Gabrielle Roy Prize Reception as part of ACQL’s annual conference. To register to attend the ceremony or the conference, please visit our conference’s registration page.

For more information, contact Nicholas Bradley, Chair of the Jury, English Section, at nbradley@uvic.ca.

The ACQL is currently having difficulty filling Executive positions. If you are at all interested in participating in the ACQL, please contact any of the existing members of the association. Participation is key for the organisation to function properly and carry out activities such as the GR Prize and annual conferences.

Positions needing filled: President / VP (Anglophone and Francophone) / Chairs – GR Prize (Anglo and Francophone)