Immigrant writers who have made their homes in Montreal grapple with difficult questions like reconciling loyalty to their origins and to their own most private selves with the need to find a readership, and their desire to belong to the society where they live. Putting Down Roots follows the author's exploratory journeys among writers of Italian, Haitian, Arab, South Asian, and Chinese origin, as well as those writing in Yiddish, Spanish, and Hungarian.

Elaine Kalman Naves is an award-winning author of three books about literary Montreal: The Writers of Montreal, Putting Down Roots: Montreal’s Immigrant Writers, and, with Bryan Demchinsky, Storied Streets: Montreal in the Literary Imagination. Her two family memoirs, Journey to Vaja and Shoshanna’s Story, have won critical praise and many prizes.

Elaine Kalman-Naves' profile page

"For many of the writers discussed in Putting Down Roots, success in their ancestral homes has preceded translation and acceptance in Canada, where too little is known about their culture and literary tradition to allow for much of a foothold among Canadian readers. It may be that Putting Down Roots goes a certain distance toward opening up the possibility for such footholds. ...[Kalman Naves] provides a map of the unusual cultural terrain of Montreal's polyglot writers' community." —Norman Ravvin, Canadian Jewish Studies Vol.6"A fascinating look at the rich and varied voices and languages of the immigrant writers of contemporary Montreal...Naves has made a valuable contribution to the literature on Canadian immigrant literature." —Carol A. Stos, Canadian Book Review Annual