Issues
Issue 172Fall 2024
BAD BEHAVIOR: in which we go too far with storytelling, help our brother through his pregnancy, confront ethics at a boat party, and finally learn about pain porn.
Issue 171Summer 2024
WHO’S TO BLAME: in which we dance naked in the field, have mock sympathy for dying goldfish, look for fathers who aren’t there, and hang tight as the plane goes down.
Issue 170Spring 2024
THE ART OF RESILIENCE: in which we realize a disconnect with childhood friends, witness a parent's infidelity, try to replace a lost lover, and appreciate our Polish "Barbie".
Issue 169Winter 2024
CHANCE REUNIONS: in which we try to subvert a grocery store chain, fail to fully grasp Cantonese, escape our newborn child, and come to terms with addiction, again.
Issue 168Fall 2023
WHEN INTELLIGENCE IS NOT ARTIFICIAL: in which we see signs of hope in a cantankerous mother, discover the economic precarities of the writing life, witness the complicated wonder of the Antarctic, and prepare for end times.
Issue 167Summer 2023
CREATING TENSION: in which we cross the border at Checkpoint Charlie, impulse buy an old hotel on the Portuguese coast, give online dating a whirl, and learn about the precarities of sex and friendship in a fort in the woods.
Issue 166Spring 2023
WHAT IS UNSAID: in which we search for the good in bad parenting, find connection at the expense of a barn owl, take a bus trip to learn the truth, and watch the apocalypse from a condo.
Issue 165Winter 2023
IN SEARCH OF OUR ALTER EGO: in which we find our true self when selling an elliptical, learn life lessons while cleaning a hotel room, and see more clearly despite our myopia.
Issue 164Fall 2022
OUR FRACTURED SELVES: in which we escape Russian security, fail to find all the answers in a children’s encyclopedia, have our future told by a fake psychic, and have our house exorcised.
Issue 163Summer 2022
TO CONNECT, AGAIN: in which we go on a pandemic date, dance on our coffin, revisit the relics of our marriage, and discover our mother’s secret as we escape from war.
Issue 162Spring 2022
IT WOULD BE GORGEOUS, NONETHELESS: in which we test the water in Cuba, escape the flood in high ground, catalogue the abuses of our partner, and honour the artistic temperament of our sister.
Issue 161Winter 2022
CONSTANT DISRUPTION OF PATTERNS: in which we still make sourdough bread, seek meaning in that strange beam of light, walk miles in our own home, and take up indoor farming.
Issue 160Fall 2021
THE IN-BETWEEN TIME:
in which we ride the Scrambler at the fair, go to Venice before the flood, buy a farm in a pandemic, and have tea with Alice Neal.
Issue 159Summer 2021
THE CASE FOR MIND WANDERING:
in which we: discover our father by working for him, get up at dawn to watch the birds, learn hard lessons from a snow storm, and see wolverines in the park.
Issue 158Spring 2021
WHAT LIES AHEAD:
in which we search for a missing pinball machine, reconcile with an errant son, rescue a shark in Florida, and escape (another) pandemic.
Issue 157Winter 2021
THE LURE OF POSSIBILITIES:
in which we retreat to a hermitage in Scotland, escape to Florida one last time, see miracles in our own home, and date the man of our (bad) dreams.
Issue 156Fall 2020
WHEN THE STARS ALIGN: in which we attend a party that isn’t happening, find ourselves in the archives, take a taxi to nowhere, and escape the clutches of our family.
Issue 155Summer 2020
LEAVING HOME: in which we try our hand at bending spoons, re-imagine our family summers in a Spanish finca, discover that life on the farm is not what we'd expected, and return to the homeland to have an affair.
Issue 154Spring 2020
IN NEED OF RESCUE:
in which we search for lost cats, find relief among ghosts, learn lessons of history from a barista, and discover strength in an emergency.
Issue 153Winter 2020
TO SWAY RATHER THAN RESIST:
in which we run a marathon, get a rescue dog, retreat to Berlin, face our past at a reunion, and stage a lie-in to protest climate change.
Issue 152Fall 2019
TAKING YOUR CHANCES:
in which we retreat to the wilderness, become blind with jealousy, mourn losses by reminiscing about blackberries, and consult astrologers for our anxiety.
Issue 151Summer 2019
FOUND IN TRANSLATION:
in which we write poetry in a South African hideaway, find untold clarity in sobriety, chase trees down our street, and trace our history in tattoos.
Issue 150Spring 2019
ADJUSTMENTS NEED TO BE MADE:
in which we discover the art of grief on a train to Paris, fall in love with a manatee, learn to find solace in a retreat, and canoe the Allagash River in search of Thoreau.
Issue 149Winter 2019
POINTS OF DEPARTURE:in which we study Kabbalah with our father, search for the trickery in magic, visit Niagara Falls to save our marriage, and flee Aleppo with our family.
Issue 148Fall 2018
THE WEIGHT OF STORY:
in which we find a
tempest in a real estate deal, discover the devastation a
razor blade can wield, find new ways to revive a marriage,
and explore atheism in a synagogue.
Issue 147Summer 2018
WHEN THE PAST IS PRESENT:
in which we maneuver antlers on the bus, suffer grief through cooking, learn to write by washing dishes, and discover life by climbing mountains.
Issue 146Spring 2018
IF ON THE WAY YOU WANDER:
in which we come to terms with our daughter's sexuality, suffer a visit from our mother, wreak havoc on our child's toy, and get naked to spy on our neighbours.
Issue 145Winter 2018
WHAT LIES AHEAD:
in which we eradicate fear through curiosity, ride an articulated bus, take stock on a fish farm, and tell our own kind of fairy tale.
Issue 144Fall 2017
MEET ME AT THE EDGE:
where we build cities with tin cans, become adept at using chopsticks, fall in love despite different gods, and give chase to figures in unitards.
Issue 143Summer 2017
THE VIEW FROM HERE:
in which we stick with our stories, count from moja to nane, befriend lakes and the Klee Wyck woman, and sing ghazals in bathhouses.
Issue 142Spring 2017
WAITING FOR THE RETURN:
in which we sort out our collection of spoons and neckties, chase the bears that haunt us, find our long-lost writing voice, and learn to play guitar all over again.
Issue 141Winter 2017
TIME TO TALK OF MORE CHEERFUL THINGS:
in which we find love at a Purim party, meet an Ethiopian filmmaker on the train, challenge an upstart student, and stand naked in front of the refrigerator.
Issue 140Fall 2016
IN APPRECIATION OF OUR SPOTS:
in which we get tangled up in our hair, wear far too much make-up, nurse a sick cat, and learn how to love our family.
Issue 139Summer 2016
I'LL KNOW WHEN I GET THERE:
in which we create a mask to begin a journey, find the soft spot in rejection, learn the hard truths at summer camp, and send a naked intruder packing.
Issue 138Spring 2016
THE TRICKERY OF SPRING:
in which we eat French fries in Paris, translate the dead, run away with a movie star, and try not to go to the dogs.
Issue 137Winter 2016
A GOOD POLEMIC IS HARD TO FIND:
in which we doubt faith healers, reckon with the vision of Flannery O'Connor, Wrestle with religious lingo, and be thankful just to survive.
Issue 136Fall 2015
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?:
in which we connect with Kafka, cross thorny borders, learn to dive, skirt catastrophes, and lose at badminton.
Issue 135Summer 2015
FALL INTO A NEW WORLD:
In which you can shout profanities at drivers, take pictures in a photobooth, explore the myth of Persephone, and the ruins in France.
Issue 134Spring 2015
THE CAGED AND THOSE WHO RUN AWAY:
in which we search for Sasquatch, escape the Nazis, honour the dead, and celebrate second chances.
Issue 133Winter 2015
THE TENDENCY TO PATTERN:
in which we buy a planet, seduce a washing machine, reconstruct a fire, and peek at a naked lady.
Issue 132Fall 2014
WHAT COMES TO THE SURFACE:
in which we flirt with a deserter, become seduced by a bunny suit, and reflect on how poetry teaches us to be human.
Issue 131Summer 2014
WAR: AN UPHILL BATTLE:
in which we return to the front, abandon the revolution, find new ways of remembering and more ways of forgetting.
Issue 130Spring 2014
THE SUM AND THE PARTS:
in which we avoid a rabid raccoon, take advice from Jonathan Swift, meet our clone and find a date for your husband.
Issue 129Winter 2014
THE WILD AND UNWONTED:
in which we sacrifice sock monkeys, escape roaming coyotes, find our tribe through tennis, and embrace bad poetry.
Issue 128Fall 2013
LIES AND APPROPRIATE TRUTHS:
in which we stuff a hawk, embrace pain, get crushed by the violin, and take arms with a coke bottle.
Issue 127Summer 2013
WRESTLING WITH THE HUMOURS:
in which Mike Barnes considers the state of wellness, Isabel Huggan stirs us with poetry, John Metcalf delivers a jeremiad and Vincent Lam gambles on a winner.
Issue 126Spring 2013
ALL AT SEA:
in which we learn the care and keeping of frogs, swim waterways by proxy, cross oceans in cargo ships, run up gangways and sink under the weight of relationships.
Issue 125Winter 2013
THE DISQUIET OF MEN: in which we skirt tragedy, watch marriages wither, and seek direction while riding the rails.
Issue 124Fall 2012
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A COMPLICATED KIND:
in which we feel the earth move beneath our feet, learn to say good-bye in so many ways, & collect the queen of all chess pieces.
Issue 123Summer 2012
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE:
in which you can quit your day job, read trashy teen mags, dance with dogs, and hurl pumpkins at the moon.
Issue 122Spring 2012
PEOPLE BEHAVING BADLY:
in which we lie, cheat, drink too much brandy, consort with bears, disregard the pigs, and make much ado about muffins.
Issue 121Winter 2012
KNOCK, KNOCK:
Who's there? An estranged father, a former student, the man you aren't marrying, the sound effects man, a stranger rising as if out of the sea..
Issue 120Fall 2011
LOVE IS ABROAD:
in which our writers map love & loss in Arusha, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Rome, New York, Tokyo, Soweto, & St. Petersburg.
Issue 119Summer 2011
THE QuArc ISSUE:
in which science becomes metaphor, poets don lab coats, Alice Munro takes the measure of happiness, the catastrophes are ultra-violet, & quarks shoot off in all directions.
Issue 118Spring 2011
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ANIMAL:
in which we are gentled by horses, hogwashed by Joy, kissed like a comet–and rise from the dead.
Issue 117Winter 2011
FATHERS, MOTHERS, LOVERS & OTHERS:
in which we spend seven minutes in heaven, get ready for The Big One, and eat french fries in a light-hearted way.
Issue 116Fall 2010
TO SEE AND BE SEEN:
in which we stare at writers until they're uncomfortable, ponder soft-core pornography, commit petty crime, and witness a little cremation.
Issue 115Summer 2010
ON THE ROAD:
in which we witness a hit-and-run in Cambodia, cry on the Metro, talk slugs and Smurfs on the six-oh-four to Vancouver, and mourn the path untaken.
Issue 114Spring 2010
TO LIST IS HUMAN:
in which writer, collage artist and confirmed 'list addict' Diane Schoemperlen shows us the literary side of her obsession - fiction, poetry, art; versions, invocations, inventories and stuff to do.
Issue 113Winter 2010
MATTERS OF THE HEART:
of mourning and mothering, fetish poems and foreign territory, romantic invitations and plastic explosives.
Issue 112Fall 2009
TRAVELLERS IN A STRANGE LAND:
in which John Metcalf visits the museum at the end of the world, Carrie Snyder dives in the dark, and Shoshanna Wingate walks on the other side of the tracks.
Issue 111Summer 2009
I THINK I SHOULD GO HOME:
in which we play 'what if' with Amy Jones, deliver the news with Trevor Cole, and miss Paris with Lyse Champagne.
Issue 110Spring 2009
LAST POEMS:
in which Elizabeth Hay evokes love and loss in the stifling heat of a Brooklyn summer and we bear witness to the death of a child at the hands of children.
Issue 109Winter 2009
FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON AND ANYHOW:
Anne Fleming, Robyn Sarah, and Dave Margoshes catch the imagination hard at work, generating new stories & poems.
Issue 108Fall 2008
ASSORTED PEDESTRIANS:
in which Andreae Prozesky makes good with poetry, Diane Schoemperlen takes a night flight, Heather Cadsby delivers a manifesto, and Terry Griggs decants some Joie de Viv.
Issue 107Summer 2008
THE SALON DES REFUSÉS:
in which we crash the party of a famous flightless bird (can you spot him on the cover?), take over the drawing room and break out our favourite break-through stories.
Issue 106Spring 2008
THE MONTREAL ISSUE: in which we turn twenty again, wax epicurian, ogle boys and bagels, visit a night zoo, reinvent the chair and shoot a noncoercive Communist. Welcome to the neighbourhood.
Issue 105Winter 2008
ADVENTURES IN VERSE:
in which Souvankham Thammavongsa is found, Jeffery Donaldson enters with puck, Madhur Anand writes a prize-worthy poem on a napkin, and we meet a passel of poets, a snicker of critics
Issue 104Fall 2007
THE REAL ESTATE ISSUE:
in which we gather poems, stories, and essays on how place defines us and our experience of what's real.
Issue 103Summer 2007
INTRODUCING KATHLEEN WINTER: her take on rejection letters, aging, the inner lives of women, and "all the small moving things of the world."
Issue 102Spring 2007
The LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: Oh, Canada! Drawings by Charles Checketts, and Crossing the Straits with Steve McOrmand.
Issue 98Spring 2006
Fiery short fiction from the East Coast—introducing Nicole Dixon It’s out there—great Canadian science fiction, mystery, fantasy, & erotica.
Issue 97Winter 2006
WRITING LIVES: The Inner Landscapes of Artist Jeffrey Burns and Finding Those Fabulous First Lines
Issue 94Spring 2005
Hockey Write in Canada Are fiction lovers snobs when it comes to the Hockey novel?
Issue 93Winter 2005
The Writer Abroad: in which Edna Staebler goes to Paris, Nino Ricci goes to Italy, and Diana Fitzgerald Bryden goes to Greece
Issue 92Fall 2004
Weddings & Other Disasters: Electrocution, On-line Dating, Delinquency, Phobias & Failed Seductions
Issue 47Winter 1993
An interview with and new fiction by Dean Bonney and Oakland Ross on writing