On Monday, 30th September 2024, renowned author and translator Padma Viswanathan joined Writers Read for our first event of the season. Taking place in the Library Seminar Room, this intimate event welcomed diverse members of the Montreal writing community. Padma read excerpts from her new book Charterhouse of Padma. A very engaged audience joined in for a Q&A session that covered everything from writing during COVID to building a literary genealogy.

Padma Viswanathan is a Canadian-American writer and translator whose novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and others. Her most recent book is Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime. Viswanathan’s short fiction, essays and translations have appeared in Granta, The Boston Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Her full-length translations include São Bernardo, by Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos, and Where We Stand by philosopher Djamila Ribeiro. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas—Fayetteville, where she is Founding Director of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Program.

Writers Read would like to thank Padma Viswanathan for starting our season off with an investigation into the world of chartreuse. Our next event for 2024 will be taking place November 11th with queer Black feminist love evangelist Alexis Pauline Gumbs.