During his career as an author and journalist, Mark Abley has reached out to readers and the literary community as a teacher, lecturer, speaker, panelist, and more. He participated in conferences and festivals, visited schools, and was involved with various organisations, such as the Quebec Writers' Federation and the Writer’s Union of Canada.
An important aspect of Ableys work consists of the promotion of English language as part of Quebec culture as well as raising awareness for endangered languages. In this context, Abley took part in the Quanglos tour to promote Quebec English-language writers in 1995. In 2013, Abley participated in the production of a DVD produced by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN).
Abley has taught in many institutions, including Concordia, Oxford, Cambridge, and Ohio State Universities. He has led several non-fiction workshops, among others for the Quebec Writers’ Federation and at the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he also got involved as a writer, editor, and guest lecturer in the Creative Nonfiction program.
Abley also reached out to young audiences, for example through school visits to promote his book Ghost Cat.
In 2011, Abley was writer in residence at the Pointe-Claire Public library, and in March 2016 at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
As a member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, Abley has led several religious services, which are also documented in this series.
Finally, Abley served as literary executor of the poet Anne Szumigalski.
The series is completed with interviews with Mark Abley, and his CVs.
The series contains, but is not limited to, agendas, an address book, CVs, policies, biographies, correspondence, course outlines, brochures, drafts, essays, posters, handbooks, handouts, interviews, invitations, notes, lectures, lists, photographs, newspaper articles, poems, periodicals, programs, reviews, speeches, a will, a festival schedule, pamphlets, a sound recording, and a multi-media production.
