Montréal, Québec, November 28 2008 – The management of Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth is pleased to announce that it has selected the well-known French author Christophe Donner to inaugurate its writer residency program. Mr. Donner will reside at the hotel during the month of December in order to pursue his writing, taking his inspiration from the dynamic cultural life of Montreal.

Announced a year ago during Rendez-vous November 2007 – Montréal, cultural metropolis, the Writer in Residence program has been created to contribute to the international promotion of Montreal’s creativity, originality and diversity. This yearly residency for professional authors aims to give writers privileged conditions in which to focus on their literary work while developing new relationships with Montreal residents and broadening their horizons. 
Christophe Donner has been selected for the richness and diversity of his writings, as well as for his unique personality, very similar to that of our City: somewhat rebellious, surprising, poetic, modern and passionate.  Christophe Donner, or Chris Donner, was born in 1956.   Son of a psychoanalyst mother and a communist engineer father, he was marked by his early years in the suburbs of Paris.  Drawn to the performing arts, although without a diploma, he began working in film, first as actor, then as film editor and director.  He then turned his talents towards writing and became a journalist, novelist and literary critic.
An enthusiast of horse racing, he was racing columnist for France-Soir before founding Of Course magazine in 2003.  He also wrote a weekly column in Le Monde 2, and was an international reporter for Globe magazine, which gave him the opportunity to explore other countries, such as, the United States, Mexico, Russia and Africa.
Known for his auto fictional approach to literary style (fictionalized autobiography), Christophe Donner is the author of L'Empire de la morale, Ainsi va le jeune loup au sang et Un roi sans lendemain, which was one of the selections for the Goncourt Prize in 2007. He recently published a play entitled Libres enfants (Actes Sud) and, following his stay at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, his essay will be published in March 2009 by Grasset.   While in residence, he plans to work on a news story-novel on the Socialist Party Conference in Reims, detailing the famous Bed-In for Peace of John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth which in his eyes represents the founding act of People-Politics.

For more information on the author residency program, please contact Joanne Papineau at 514/954-2208.