Year in Review: 2026

An overview of L.M. Montgomery-related news, events, calls for papers, site updates, and publications from 2026.

Preamble

Welcome to 2026! Once again, this year promises to be busy with new publications, events, and news stories, including celebrations of the centenary of the publication of L.M. Montgomery’s 1926 novel, fan favourite The Blue Castle.

During the winter term, I taught two second-year undergraduate courses in literary studies, one on early Canadian literature and one on children’s literature. Not surprisingly, I included texts by L.M. Montgomery in both of them. In a course on early Canadian literature, my students and I read the second edition of Cynthia Sugars and Laura Moss’s excellent anthology Canadian Literatures in English: Texts and Contexts, volume 1, which includes Montgomery’s 1935 short story “The House Party at Smoky Island,” and we supplemented that anthology with a discussion of her 1921 First World War novel, Rilla of Ingleside.

I’ve taught Anne of Green Gables in past courses on children’s literature, but after spending so many years researching the book’s initial publication and reception as a novel for adults that children could also read, I seem to have less and less to say about Anne of Green Gables as a book that’s for children. Instead, I put together a selection of Montgomery’s never-before-collected Sunday school stories as part of a unit on turn-of-the-twentieth-century periodical work for young readers, and we ended the course with a discussion of Ivy Noelle Weir’s Anne of West Philly, a recent graphic novel retelling of Anne of Green Gables illustrated by Myisha Haynes.

I’ll continue to update this page throughout the year as information about new projects, publications, adaptations, events, and news items appears.

Projects

The Glory and the Dream: L.M. Montgomery’s Writing Life

Dundurn Press, 2026

Dundurn Press (Toronto) published my book-length study The Glory and the Dream: L.M. Montgomery’s Writing Life in February 2026.

The Glory and the Dream: L.M. Montgomery’s Writing Life draws from some never-before-seen materials as well as articles, letters, and diaries by L.M. Montgomery to paint a comprehensive portrait of the professional career of one of the most successful writers of the twentieth century. Including an analysis of her depiction of writers in her fiction, issues of copyright, advertising strategies, and advice for aspiring writers, this highly contemporary work will be sure to enthral Montgomery’s worldwide readership with the inner life of the author of Anne of Green Gables.

L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” Through the Years: Texts, Covers, Readers

Toronto Public Library, 2026

The Toronto Public Library will publish L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” Through the Years: Texts, Covers, Readers, as volume 36 in the Helen E. Stubbs Memorial Lectures, in 2026.

The text of L.M. Montgomery’s first and most famous book, Anne of Green Gables, has largely stayed the same since it was published in 1908. But everything else—from cover designs to the technologies people use to read and discuss books—has changed immeasurably since then. In this lecture, novelist and scholar Benjamin Lefebvre shares some of the discoveries he has made throughout his many years as a Montgomery scholar and offers new insights about this perennially popular book, how it fits within Montgomery’s lifetime body of work, and how it continues to be reprinted today.

Reimagining Anne: L.M. Montgomery’s Literary Icon on Screen

Dundurn Press, 2027

Dundurn Press (Toronto) will publish my book-length study Reimagining Anne: L.M. Montgomery’s Literary Icon on Screen in 2027.

Reimagining Anne: L.M. Montgomery’s Literary Icon on Screen looks at film and television adaptations of Anne of Green Gables over a century, from a lost 1919 silent film to the CBC/Netflix hit Anne with an “E.” It examines the multiple ways that these productions draw from and reinterpret Montgomery’s iconic literary character and the text of her perennially bestselling novel, and it draws from rarely seen sources to piece together some of the controversies and disagreements happening behind the scenes.

Print

Anne of a Different Island

Virginia Kantra

Berkley (New York), an imprint of Penguin Random House, published Virginia Kantra’s novel Anne of a Different Island in January.

A woman learns to be the heroine of her own life in this heartfelt novel inspired by Anne of Green Gables by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.

She believed life could follow a plotline—until the story she was living unraveled.

Anne Gallagher has always lived by the book. Anne of Green Gables, that is. Growing up on Mackinac Island, she saw herself as her namesake: the same impulsive charm, the same wild imagination, even the same red hair (dyed, but still). She followed in Anne Shirley’s fictional footsteps, chasing dreams of teaching and writing, and falling for her very own storybook hero.

But when a string of real-life plot twists—a failing romance, a fight with the administration, and the sudden death of her beloved father—pulls her back to the island she once couldn’t wait to leave, Anne is forced to face a truth no story ever prepared her for. Sometimes, life doesn’t follow a script.

Back in the house she grew up in, Anne must confront her past and the people she left behind, including Joe Miller, the boy who once called her “The Pest.” It’s time to figure out what she wants and rewrite her story to create her own happy ending. Not the book version. The real one.

Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada

Carole Gerson

Concordia University Press (Montreal) published Carole Gerson’s book-length study Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada, part of the Authors, Publishers, Readers, Texts: Studies in Book History and Print Culture series, in April.

Commemorations of deceased writers can often take on a life of their own, from the stately and serious to the kitschy and commercial. In Literary Life After Death, Carole Gerson categorizes and analyzes the ways in which writers have been commemorated in Canada to show how tributes have changed over time and in response to evolving national and social concerns.

First focusing on officially sanctioned commemorations by governments through objects such as coins, stamps, and plaques, as well as historic sites and place names, the book then turns to commemorations driven by local communities and non-profit organizations, such as house museums, literary tourist sites, statues, parks, and other markers. The material culture and online tributes of amateurs and hobbyists are discussed as well as literary commemorations, when later authors incorporate or revisit deceased authors as characters in new works of literature. In doing so, this work identifies commonalities among commemorations as well as the under-representation of groups such as women authors, racialized authors, and Indigenous writers in Canada.

Brimming with examples and discussions of dozens of writers, Literary Life After Death takes an expansive and often-amusing approach to literary studies and cultural history.

She Was the Story Girl: How L.M. Montgomery Learned to Never Give Up!

Joann Hamilton-Barry

Nimbus Publishing (Halifax) will publish Joann Hamilton-Barry’s She Was the Story Girl: How L.M. Montgomery Learned to Never Give Up!, a biography aimed at young readers illustrated by Leah Boudreau, in May.

An entertaining and inspiring early reader celebrating the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables, featuring full colour illustrations.

“You see I had learned the first, last, and middle lesson—‘never give up!’”
—L.M. Montgomery

Before she wrote the bestselling Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery was just a girl from Prince Edward Island, dreaming of being a writer.

She Was the Story Girl tells the fascinating true story of young Maud’s difficult childhood and her unstoppable enthusiasm for writing. Before Maud was two years old, her mother died and her father moved out west, leaving her to be raised by her strict grandparents. They didn’t believe children should read or write stories. But Maud couldn’t resist a good tale. She looked for inspiration everywhere, from gossip overheard at the post office to ghostly laundry hanging on the line. Everything she experienced or imagined helped her become the beloved writer we know today.

With informational sidebars and charming, full-colour illustrations throughout, this early chapter book will inspire budding young writers and kindred spirits alike.

Additional Print Texts

Several more contributions are forthcoming, including special journal collections, book chapters, and journal articles.

Events

“A Hop Out of Kin”: L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle

Presider: Heidi Lawrence (Brigham Young University)

The 2026 MLA Convention, held in Toronto, included a panel on L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle, held on Friday, 9 January 2026.

Panelists examine aspects of change and family dynamics in L. M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle. Set entirely in Ontario, this novel represents a unique setting and plot dynamic in Montgomery’s already-extant family of novels.

Panelists included Rita Bode (Trent University), Melanie Fishbane (Western University), Allison Hudson (Dublin City University), Andrea McKenzie (York University), Tara K. Parmiter (New York University), and Laura Robinson (Acadia University).

L.M. Montgomery and Change

University of Prince Edward Island, 24–28 June 2026

Co-chairs: Allison McBain Hudson and Caroline E. Jones

L.M. Montgomery and Change, the seventeenth biennial international conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute, will be held at the University of Prince Edward Island on 24–28 June 2024. Co-chaired by Allison McBain Hudson and Caroline E. Jones, the conference will feature keynote addresses by Megan Follows (“Anne of Everywhere: How a Redheaded Girl from PEI Became Canada’s Greatest Cultural Ambassador and Changed My Life Forever”), Katharine Slater (“Change the Subject: Queer Opacity and L.M. Montgomery”), and Allison McBain Hudson (“Maud, Pat, and Me: The Materiality of Change”) and many more presentations and workshops.

The constancy of change pervades Montgomery’s life, work, and legacy. From the social, literary, political, and technological changes that took place throughout her lifetime to the ways in which she wrote about her characters coping with personal change, Montgomery engages change in all aspects of the human experience. Whether considered a positive or negative force, change is vital in both “real” life and in fiction, for without it comes stagnation, boredom, or worse. Change is not an easy force to be reckoned with, and the challenges of change are a common theme in Montgomery’s world.

For more information about this conference, see the event page at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website.

Image Credit

Detail from the cover of an early edition of L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle, published by A.L. Burt Company. Courtesy of the Internet Archive.

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