About Serai

With this issue of Serai, we step into our 22nd year. Obituaries have been written about mags like Ramparts, Partisan review, Sevendays and several others. Wikipedia has a section on "defunct magazines" and some of the best mags of the sixties and seventies are listed there. These magazines spawned writers and editors who went on to form Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Truthout and several other web based zines. Many of our readers felt that somewhere along the way Serai would also fold up. But they would never tell us so. Out of respectful diffidence.We did not fold up. We have increased our readership many fold.. And it's not just a matter of tenacity for the volunteer group that has kept it alive and the readership that has encouraged Serai to carry on. It's a necessity, felt by us. In this era of "accomodation" as mouthed by the conniving and "unreasonable" right-wing in Quebec and Canada, Serai evolves continuously to be part of the progressive network in Canada and elsewhere in the world. With this issue of Serai, we have changed our layout and look and brought it in line with the comments made by our readers for better readability and navigation. We invite the comments of our readers.

Please write to us at talkback@montrealserai.com

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $20.0 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

Serai is a Persian word which means 'resting place' or a 'place of transience' for a traveler. Founded in 1986, Montreal Serai is an arts magazine that publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and reviews of film, music, art, exhibitions, theater and dance.

Its primary focus is to create a social awareness about the existence and growth of newer communities in Quebec, Canada and the world. New Arts, New Communities are about the emerging presence of creative individuals and peoples that do not come from the traditional majority.

Bringing the Margins to the Center is a statement of our intent to counteract exclusion, separation, and marginalization when they occur in the arts and in society at large. Along with our theater group of the same name, the Serai collective strives to promote works that are not exclusively franco, anglo, allo -- works that reflect and assert the diverse world we live in.