Simplicity and hard work keeps audiences coming back.

Though the Yellow Door is known for its history, it is still a commonly frequented venue. Once a month, it hosts a poetry and prose reading where about forty people fill the basement, including Yellow Door veterans and McGill students. Spoken word artist Ian Ferrier, who performed at one of the shows, said that the Yellow Door has been kind to the literary scene. Poets attending the readings agree that the coffeehouse, the longest running in Canada, has played a vital part in Montreal. It is the first place in the city they became aware of that offered a regular venue for folk music and poetry.

Evenings are organized by poet Ilona Martonfi, and feature talented Montreal poets and prose writers such as Julie Keith, Sonja Skarstedt, George Slobodzian, Stephen Morrissey, Carolyn Zonailo, and many others.

This is the eight year that Martonfi has organized readings: Lovers and Others, an annual event about love, union and relationships, has also been held at Hurley’s Irish Pub and Café Sarajevo. She says, “I enjoy networking and community-building among poets, writers and people who love creative writing. Sometimes publishers from Toronto or Vancouver will contact me to book one of their writers.”

Poet Carolyn Zonailo, who has been reading at the Yellow Door for the past six years said, “It has a collective sort of soul feeling. The audience is diverse (with) different ages.”

There is a consensus among poets that the process of writing and writing poetry does not follow a cut and dried formula. “Poetry is sacramental. It writes itself.” Zonailo says. “My inspiration lies in the fact that my poems come to me…they arrive.” The creative process perpetually challenges writers, amateurs, and professionals alike.

In the intimate atmosphere of the Yellow Door Coffeehouse, poets, fiction and non-fiction writers warm the listeners with humorous pieces, eclectic themes and eccentric images. The cozy ambiance downstairs is a great venue for writers, whose descriptive voices bring images to life that at times even evoke ripples of laughter.

The Yellow Door is proud to announce and gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage through IPOLC, and The League of Canadian Poets.

Producer/Host of poetry and prose events Ilona Martonfi can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 514-939-4173. Check out the Yellow Door Coffehouse by clicking here.

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