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Every spring, hundreds of writers, literary translators, journalists and publishers from all over the world gather for the world's greatest multilingual literary festival in Montreal. They come together in Montreal because this city is known for blending the widest diversity of ethnic backgrounds into one fantastic jazz medley. The Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival is an exciting celebration for everyone with an interest in literature from various cultures.

In 2010, the 12th edition of this five-day party will take place from the 21st to the 25th of April at the Delta Centre-Ville Hotel. The most prominent languages will be English, French and Spanish.

The highlight of the festival will be awarding the Grand Prix, a 10,000 dollar award for a lifetime of literary achievement by a writer of international reputation. Previous winners of this prize include A.S. Byatt (2009), Margaret Atwood (2007) and Paul Auster (2004). This year, the winner will be Dany Laferriere. He once started his career as a journalist in Haiti during the notorious Duvalier regime. He immigrated to Canada in 1978 after a colleague was murdered and settled in Montreal, where he wrote How to Make Love to a Negro. The novel became both a critical and a commercial success. In the autumn of 2010, his 17th novel will come out, titled I am a Japanese Writer. It is said to be a devilishly intelligent, sensual and hilarious tale of a blocked Montreal writer who one day learns that he is famous in Japan for having written a novel he never wrote.

On Saturday the 24th of April, the Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon will teach a master class called 'Going in humility', offering practical ways of finding and following, the path of the unknown. Another master class will be taught by Bob Holman, who has recently been crowned Ringmaster of the Spoken Word (New York Daily News), Poetry Czar (Village Voice) and this generation's Ezra Pound (San Francisco's Poetry Flash).

At the same time, the Blue Met Children's Festival will take place in 47 different venues everywhere in Montreal. You won't need tickets for the activities in libraries, bookstores, museums and cultural centres, and entry will be gratis.

For those who enjoy city trips, Montreal has a lot to offer, being the second-largest city of Canada. It has a unique historic area, which features cobbled roads and attractions such as the Old Port of Montreal and the Notre-Dame de Montreal Basilica. The city centre is always alive with entertainment, fashion and art shows, jazz festivals and a wide variety of clubs, discos, bars, theatres and restaurants.

But for literature lovers, April is the month to visit Quebec. Flights to Montreal take around eight hours from the UK.