is a non-profit based in Quebec City devoted to the production and distribution of artistic initiatives. An intersectional and intergenerational approach is at the heart of CONTOURS, as well as contemporary poetry’s multiple linguistic identities and explorations.
The mission of is to participate in discussions about the future of creating the contemporary literary arts community; to build bridges between digital elements and innovative technologies with poetry; to foster and support experimental staging; to connect poetry to all kinds of artistic disciplines; to contribute to both the documenting of the history of poetry as well as the discovery of contemporary poetry; to map out, document artistic practices within the field in direct participation of the artists themselves.
the co-directors
vanessa bell
Poet, performer, artist and literary activist, Vanessa Bell is co-director of CONTOURS and director of the poetry collection at Éditions du Quartz. Her practice in the literary arts has allowed her to perform in the Americas and Europe. She is the author of the collections De rivières (2019, La Peuplade), MONUMENTS (2022, Le Noroît) and co-director of the Anthologie de la poésie actuelle des femmes au Québec 2000 | 2020 (2021, Remue-ménage). Her writing is vivid and sharp, a whirlwind of audaciousness whose central themes are sisterhood, filiation, real and fantasized territories. She has been awarded several grants and prizes, including the Félix-Antoine-Savard Prize (2021, FIPTR). Vanessa Bell is, under the mentorship of Nicole Brossard, the first francophone Canadian to be supported by the Writers' Trust of Canada's Rising Stars program (2022).
juliette bernatchez
Juliette Bernatchez has a master's degree in literary studies and is a cultural worker and author. Since 2018, she has accumulated contracts in various cultural organizations. In February 2021, she co-founded CONTOURS, a literary arts production and distribution organization.
As an author, she has been seen and heard performing on several occasions, and can be read in the magazines Zinc, Le Sabord and Françoise Stéréo. In the summer of 2022, she was awarded a creation grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec for the writing of her first book of poetry, and obtained a first creation residency with the UNESCO literary cities of Québec and Norwich.
board of directors
véronique langlais ‧ president
ariane lehoux traversy ‧ treasurer
tom lebrun ‧ administrator
graphic design ‧ criterium
photo credit · justine latour