Friends and Serai followers,
Hope we crest in the battle against COVID-19 very soon!
Montréal Serai has stepped into its 34th year as a progressive cultural force and focal point for alternate arts practice in this city.
We showcase new artists, writers, poets and performers. We review films, plays and books, and write serious and reflective essays about the times we live in. Some of Montréal’s outstanding writers, artists and poets have been featured in our pages. Over four hundred artists have contributed or have been highlighted in our magazine. A visit to our website will give you a glimpse of some of the comments we’ve received from readers and writers. Almost all Serai contributors (even the poets!) commend our attention to detail and our commitment to bringing out the best.
Our mandate has always been to provide a forum to bring voices on the margins to the centre. Today however we are on stage as a unifying centre where diversity and acceptance are no longer matters of lip service. This centre is a space where we perform with the larger community. Each year, we add new voices, new perspectives. We continue to be defined by the communities, cultures and languages we support – Canadian, Québécois, Indigenous, multilingual, street artists, emerging writers, sculptors, musicians, well-known literary figures and those unseen. Our emergence on the stage is now providing a platform to the majority community that has chosen to support a diversified community.
We have reached a point where we receive nearly 2 million hits per year. The average dwell time on the site is approximately 12 minutes – significantly above the average score for most mainstream magazines. Of course, we would like to believe that our friends don’t simply open an article and walk away to run errands!
Our editorial staff, copy editors and web experts work essentially on a volunteer basis. We pay all our writers a small honorarium based entirely on the funds we receive from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Every year we appeal to our readers and friends for donations, and receive a healthy response. As you might be aware, we have to pay for administrative requirements, various fundraising campaigns, stationery and supplies, postal box rental, mailing and layout software fees, and for occasional travel between Montréal and Ottawa. At times, we are faced with a major expense such as replacing our computers. We always try to limit our costs to ensure that timely payments are made to writers and artists. This year we have embarked on an internship program for an Arts History student (without any additional grants).
We are once again in need of some auxiliary funding and are therefore asking you to contribute. All contributions ranging from $5.00 to $500.00 are welcome. You may send an e-transfer to serai.editor@gmail.com or better still, make your donation via Paypal. At the bottom of this page and on our website, you’ll find a Donate button for payments via Paypal. Or, you can send a cheque made out to Montréal Serai to:
- Box 72, Succursale NDG
Montréal, Québec Canada H4A 3P4
Thank you for considering our request.
You can donate to Montreal Serai here, using Paypal.
Since 2010, Montreal Serai has been publishing my poems and paying me for them. Political poems, feminist poems, lyric poems. Poems about writing poems, about being a tourist in Israel, about Montreal, the city in which I was born.
And I have read Montreal Serai's editorials, reviews, musings, and all the other poets' poems. Montreal Serai: it has been a pleasure.
Louise Carson
Montreal poet and writer
Your latest issue is fantastic. The entire content is thought provoking.
W. Brandon Lacy
Community activist from Minnesota
Just a note to say that I liked and appreciated this thoughtful article extremely. I keep hoping that if alternative media in other countries keep plugging away, a more accurate picture of American foreign policies since WW2 might finally make it into mainstream American media.
Rose Lovell-Smith
English teacher from New Zealand
Montreal Serai is one of the best online magazines, indeed. I was always pleasantly surprised by interesting articles and high professional level of this issue…
I feel proud to be the part of your great magazine…. I can imagine, how it's hard to run Serai. I wish you a lot of energy, don't give up, I do believe in your passion and fortune.
Oleg Dergachov
Award winning Montreal artist and cartoonist
I was delighted to be published in Montréal Serai because of the beauty of its graphics and layout, the quality of its content and the integrity of its editorial perspective.
It is a wonderful on-line magazine.
Jim Olwell
Poet, writer
Montreal Serai presents a high literary standard and a courageous venue for unconventional ideas, both in one. I have been happy to both read Serai and proud to contribute to it over the years. I believe it has been making, and continues to make, a difference and hope it will continue to exist many years into the future.
Ehab Lotayef
Montreal poet, writer and engineer and social activist
I encountered Montreal Serai a few years ago, when I moved to Montreal from Ottawa. It's tagline says: Bringing the margins to the centre. It is faithful to this mission, whose relevance has increased with time. I know it has a long and laudable three-decade long history, but I will confine myself to speaking to its present and recent past.
Full disclosure: I have contributed to MS several times and my short story collection (2013) and novel (2018) were also given space here. I have enjoyed working with the editorial team and found them supportive.
A webzine that publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and reviews of film, music, art, exhibitions, theatre and dance, its editorial board picks 4 themes per year and weaves its issues around them, making place for other pieces as well. MS does not follow transient literary or artistic fashions, rather, it has a solid focus on what can broadly be termed as the socio-political sphere. The non-fiction pieces contain critical and reflective perspectives which are intelligent, and at times contain some theory, while remaining accessible to a range of readers. There's often a personal note. I like it that MS is not just text-oriented. The pieces are illustrated with arresting visuals. And MS features the work of a couple of visual artists every issue.
MS contributors come from diverse backgrounds and bring care and courage to their work.
I believe Montreal Serai plays an important role on the Canadian cultural landscape. (It has an international readership.) While staying its course, as mentioned above, it remains open to new ideas and engagements. This includes going bilingual (English-French).
Veena Gokhale
I have enjoyed reading the Montreal Serai for more than a decade and its diversity of essays on literature, art, politics and books reviewed has an international reach that keeps getting stronger. As a local freelance contributor over the years, I have found Rana Bose and the editorial team to be very open minded to articles and materials that compliment theme issues. It has been a stimulating experience both to read and to write for the Montreal Serai which has never looked better.....
Anne Cimon
Writer, Montreal
Thank you for running a thought-provoking journal that provides hours of intellectual pleasure
Uma Parameswaran
Writer, Professor of English Literature, novelist and playwright
Montreal Serai.....expressions of emotional rescues, outcries, bursts, creativities written into words ,....Montreal Serai...SSOOOOO MMMMUUUCCHHH RESPECT ...in framing perspective, contextualizing, researching, digging beyond and profoundly to seek, better understand, better survive and better make sense... ultimately to better the world. Kudos to Montreal Serai!!!!! I am a proud supporter, reader of Montreal Serai!!! I thank you profusely … the Montreal Serai team and the 100's of writers, contributors who wrote and provided refreshingly rad reflections for a mag that has been completely and freely available to all for over 3 decades!
Janet Lumb
Community organizer, facilitator, artist
The Editorial Board, Montreal Serai