Online Exclusives
Finding the Form with Rose Maloukis
I use tools and lessons from my painting life which align well with writing. At one time, I made a splendid piece in black ink on craft paper. A few years later I did the same image in water-color, and again in oil. The latter two were only passable as art but the ink drawing […]
Anthropomorphization Writ Large: An Interview with Sandra Kasturi
One of our Consulting Editors, Barbara Carter, interviews Sandra Kasturi whose poem “Specializing in the Prehistory of Whales” won second prize in the 2021 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. Barbara Carter: Sandra, I am one of those who delights in the back story of poems. Would you indulge me and tell me about the backstory […]
Sanchari Sur’s Writing Space
I have taken to writing on the couch. It’s the brightest spot in the house, and not just because of my recent acquisition, the mustard loveseat, something I purchased with earnings from my writing. There is a window looking onto the balcony, and the sky beyond. I find that while writing, when my thoughts begin […]
The Best Wave and the Right Moment: A Conversation with Aaron Schneider
Kim Jernighan, former Editor and current Special Projects editor, interviews Aaron Schneider, the third prize winners in the 2021 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse contest for his poem “Surfing Near Tofino”. Kim Jernigan: The judges of The New Quarterly’s Occasional Verse Contest work from a fairly loose definition of occasional verse, but your prize-winner, “Surfing Near Tofino”, […]
Alison Stevenson’s Writing Space
I write in various places around the house, but this is my ‘office.’ As well as writing, I keep writing-related stuff here, including notes and papers and some books I find useful and/or inspiring. I also carry out my day job here. It’s a kind of Murphy-bed set-up, in that I can sit on a […]
Covering and Uncovering Masks: An Interview with Terry Watada
One of our Poetry Editors, Roderick Spence, interviews Terry Watada whose poem “Masks” won third prize in the 2021 Occasional Verse Contest. Roderick Spence: Your poem “Masks” incorporates the beauty of Japanese vocabulary, cultural imagery and practices. To someone who doesn’t speak Japanese nor hasn’t experienced something like Obon, the Buddhist Festival of the Dead, […]
Nicole Leona Smith’s Writing Space
I rarely write anywhere but at my desk, which is where I write this from now. I have one desk here, in Cambridge, and one desk at my other home, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The history of my Newfoundland desk is almost entirely unknown to me, and that’s because I stole it. The little blue […]
What’s Marco Melfi Reading?
Imagine an award winning author abandoning their dominant language to learn a new one–not out of necessity but pure desire. This is what Jhumpa Lahiri, fiction writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, does. In her 2016 memoir, In Other Words, Lahiri describes how her obsession to learn Italian required more than courses, tutors and just visits […]
Finding the Form with Beth Kaplan
For decades, I’d wanted to write an essay about my visit with the famous artist Alice Neel, who painted a portrait of my father in 1949. I knew my parents had been friendly with Neel and her lefty gang in New York in the late forties, though had no idea to what degree. Going through […]
What’s Sandra Kasturi Reading?
I tend to be reading about 10 books at once, which does nothing for my attention span. In December, I am often wallowing in nostalgia and go back to my childhood favourites, the things that still feel Christmassy to me: Agatha Christie’s “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding,” C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the […]
