Our festival started in 1985. This will be the 28th September in 2012. It is one of the five largest events in the world of poetry, and one of the best organised.
More than 100 poets from the 5 continents have participated every year since 1989.
The city of Trois Rivieres in on the St Lawrence seaway, half way between Montreal and Quebec. We provide travel for poets to and from Montreal airport.
There are 400 poems on walls in the city. We display 5000 in a park in the town centre during the festival.
The guest poets have only one thing to do – read their poems 2 or 3 times a day, no lectures. But they must already have at least 30 poems translated into French, as Quebec is 80% French-speaking, and our city is 99%.
One of our group will introduce the poet before the reading, read their poem in French, and then the poet will read it in his native language.
There will be about 350-400 readings of poems during the 10 day festival period,
28 September to 7 October.
More than 10000 people will attend 4-7 readings, out of the 40000 attendees.
We offer poets hospitality in a hotel, with a daily allowance for meals and another for readings.
The programme of the 27th festival is on our website, as well as an incomplete list of previous participants.
For 2012, invitations are only offered to members of a PEN CLUB, but not in future years.
We would like to host an Irish poet every year. Information is at link : www.fiptr.com