L.M. Montgomery Institute of UPEI

What better way to kick off our 17th Biennial Conference than with a little Montgomery trivia? 📚✨

The Kindred Spirits Book Club Podcast brought the fun with a lively trivia night, putting everyone’s L.M. Montgomery knowledge to the test. We were especially delighted to have Megan Follows join us for the evening!

From friendly competition to plenty of laughs, it was the perfect start to a memorable week.

A big thank you to Kindred Spirits Book Club for helping us kick off the conference in such a fun way! 💚📚

The L.M. Montgomery Institute’s 17th Biennial Conference brought together scholars, readers, and Montgomery enthusiasts from near and far to explore L.M. Montgomery and Change.

From Megan Follows’ captivating keynote to inspiring conversations throughout the conference and a wonderful evening celebrating this year’s award recipients, there was so much to remember.

Congratulations to Philip Smith, recipient of the Father Bolger Award; Kate Butler, recipient of the Legacy Award; and Michaela Wipond, recipient of the Epperly Award for Outstanding Early Career Paper. 🏆

Thank you to everyone who joined us, shared their insights, and helped make the conference so memorable. A special thank you to our keynote speakers, Megan Follows, Kate Slater, and Allison McBain Hudson, for sharing their time, insights, and expertise with us.

We are also grateful to our conference co-chairs, Dr. Allison McBain Hudson and Dr. Caroline E. Jones, whose hard work and dedication helped make this conference possible.

A few moments from a very special week that we continue to look back on fondly. 💚✨

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🏠✨ Take a look at the newest piece in our “Politics of Domestic Labour” collection!

L.M. Montgomery’s wistful desire expressed in a 1908 journal entry for “a real garden” speaks to many of the challenges she faced in her early domestic life. By the time Montgomery was born in 1874, gardens had been associated with female labour/domestic space for decades, but her family only valued her labour in response to the production of food, clothing, and clean living spaces. Examining Montgomery’s gardening life, both on and off the page, helps us to better understand the many ways in which she used gardens to define and claim her own home spaces, while offering further insights into the domestic expectations placed on women’s lives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

📲 To read, “All the Flowers I Want: Claiming Gardens and Domestic Space in L.M. Montgomery’s Writings” by Abby Chandler, visit https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/Politics-of-Home/Chandler/all-flowers-i-want-claiming-gardens-and-domestic-space-lm-montgomerys-writings

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📚Bookshelf Wednesday! This week explore a semi-fictionalized, humorous child’s diary, by “the Mark Twain of New England,” Henry Shute.

Without knowing very much about Shute’s career, Montgomery may have misunderstood Shute’s sense of humor, despite enjoying the book.

📖 Learn more here:
https://kindredspaces.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3A22263 /1/mode/1up

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The L.M. Montgomery Institute is grateful for the presenters, scholars, participants, visitors, and friends who made our 17th International Conference such a success! At the conclusion of each conference, we announce the next LMMI Visiting Scholar and the theme for the next conference.

We are proud to announce that Melanie J. Fishbane (Western University) will be our Visiting Scholar from 2027–2029! She had the thrill of announcing that the theme for our 18th Biennial Conference will be L.M. MONTGOMERY AND LOVE!

Read more from Melanie, here.

Announcing the LMMI’s Next Visiting Scholar: Melanie Fishbane – L. M. Montgomery Institute The LMMI is proud to announce that our next Visiting Scholar will be Melanie J. Fishbane. Fishbane is a PhD candidate at Western University and holds an M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and an M.A. from Concordia University. She teaches literature at George Brown College. She writes on g...

📚Bookshelf Wednesday!

In July of 1903, Montgomery bade goodbye to some visitors and spent a whole afternoon reading. She read three current bestsellers but noted that modern books “are not under any obligation of immortality” like some of her other Victorian and classic favourites. She read Frank Norris’ The Pit, Owen Wister’s The Virginian and Irving Bacheller’s Darrell of the Blessed Isles.

📖 Read on to see Montgomery’s thoughts about each one and to learn which titles did reach a kind of literary immortality.

Virginian:
https://kindredspaces.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3A22250 /9/mode/1up

The Pit:
https://kindredspaces.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3A22191 /1/mode/1up

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💐📚 We’re thrilled to share that the Vision and Revision Print Collection is now available to order!

Inspired by the themes of “Vision” and “Re-vision” explored through the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s 2020 and 2022 biennial conferences, this collection brings together scholarship shaped by changing perspectives, new insights, and remarkable resilience.

📲 To order your copy, visit: https://www.lulu.com/shop/lesley-d-clement-and-tara-k-parmiter-and-alan-maceachern/journal-of-lm-montgomery-studies-vision-and-revision-collection/paperback/product-gj475wy.html?page=1&pageSize=4

📖 Read Dr. Lesley Clement’s introduction to Vision and Revision for a behind-the-scenes look at the conferences, conversations, and changing circumstances that shaped this collection: https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/vision/re-vision/Clement/Introduction

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🚨You don't want to miss it!

To see Megan's talk you can:
Register for the full in-person or virtual conference to enjoy every presentation, panel, and Megan’s keynote.
https://lmmontgomery.ca/.../2026-l-m-montgomery-and-change/

OR

Sign up specifically for Megan's talk as a standalone, free (virtual) event!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keynote-address-megan-follows-the-lm-montgomery-institute-27-june-2026-tickets-1983727720011?aff=oddtdtcreator

📲 All the conference information you need is here: https://lmmontgomery.ca/.../2026-l-m-montgomery-and-change/

We can't wait to see you on Saturday! ✨💐

**UPDATE! Due to the wonderful, overwhelming response, we've added more seats to Megan Follows' virtual keynote! See the second link below! Sign up for a ticket and the Zoom link will be shared with you just before the event.**

Countdown to the Conference: Keynote Feature ✨

The LMMI is thrilled to welcome a very special guest: Megan Follows! On Saturday, June 27, Megan will present her keynote: "Anne of Everywhere: How A Redheaded Girl from PEI Became Canada's Greatest Cultural Ambassador and Changed my Life Forever."

To see Megan's talk you can:
Register for the full in-person or virtual conference to enjoy every presentation, panel, and—of course—Megan’s keynote. https://lmmontgomery.ca/upcoming-conference/2026-l-m-montgomery-and-change/

OR

[More spots added!!] Sign up specifically for Megan's talk as a standalone, free (virtual) event! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keynote-address-megan-follows-the-lm-montgomery-institute-27-june-2026-tickets-1983727720011?aff=oddtdtcreator

📲 All the conference information you need is here: https://lmmontgomery.ca/upcoming-conference/2026-l-m-montgomery-and-change/

See you in June! 💐

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🚨Last chance to join us for L.M. Montgomery and Change! Registration for the in-person and virtual conference closes on 17 June!

📲 Explore your registration options, see the titles of the many engaging papers that will be shared, and learn more about our many conference special events here:
https://lmmontgomery.ca/upcoming-conference/2026-l-m-montgomery-and-change/

We can't wait to see you there! ✨

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📚✨ New followers: Welcome to Bookshelf Wednesdays! Each week, we share an interesting addition to the L.M. Montgomery Bookshelf Project (explore the full collection at kindredspaces.ca/bookshelf), which highlights research on and scans of some of Montgomery’s most loved or just most interesting reads!

Montgomery read many books on spiritualism, popular psychology, and even the occult, and she approached them as a curious skeptic interested in understanding some unusual ideas. This week, explore Montgomery’s review of Watson’s The Twentieth Plane (1919), a book which made a stir in Canada after the end of World War I. Montgomery had a lot to say about Watson’s conclusions and his writing style… check it out below!

https://kspaces.vre3.upei.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3A22348 /1/mode/1up

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