Online Exclusives
What’s Kim June Johnson Reading?
This is a terrible thing to admit – just awful—but my favourite books are ones I stole from the library. Which is to say: they became my favourites as I was reading them, and then, because I loved them so much, I couldn’t bear to take them back, so I just . . . kept […]
Nancy Huggett’s Writing Space
As a full-time caregiver, my most constant office is my clipboard—something I can carry around with me. Upstairs supervising a shower, downstairs problem-solving technology, on the road as uber-mum, in the car waiting, in the doctor’s office waiting. Waiting. Little bits of waiting. Which is probably why I also write poetry. I have the poet […]
Finding the Form with Natasha Sanders-Kay
“Daffodils” is not the kind of poem I’m used to writing. I joke that it’s my “white-guy-friendly” poem because it’s not particularly political or feminist, as most of my work is. Structurally, it was unusual for me too. The childhood memories have been with me for decades, but the writing process began on the second […]
The 2023 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest Longlist
After thorough consideration, The New Quarterly is pleased to announce the longlisted submissions to the 2023 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. The longlisted writers and their essays are as follows: The 2023 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest Longlist “Black Hammers Falling” by Christopher Banks “Every Possible Way” by Adèle Barclay “Staying Power” by Gayle Belsher […]
Benjamin Lefebvre’s Writing Space
I can sum up the state of my home office, the room in which most aspects of my writing life occur, in one word: piles. They are multiple, if not multitudinous—books and papers for the most part, as well as receipts, USB keys, pens, paperclips, electronic device chargers, and discarded teabag tags. My desk, so […]
John Vardon’s Writing Space
When I look through the dozens of other writing-space pieces, I am most impressed by, and slightly envious of, those writers fortunate enough to write from rooms overlooking gorgeous gardens or the shores of the “ramshackle sea,” to use a phrase by Richard Outram quoted in the blog post of Luke Hathaway. My writing and […]
Pride Month Reads
In honour of Pride Month, we’ve rounded up eleven works across our nonfiction, fiction, and poetry publications which centre LGBTQ+ characters and stories. These reads will be accessible online regardless of subscription status until August. Nonfiction “Homebodies” by J.P. Letkemann One time, we were raking leaves at my father’s cottage, and Ben rushed toward me […]
Finding the Form With John Vardon
The person who said that there is no such thing as a stupid question was obviously not an author, especially one enduring interviews on a book-promotion tour or answering questions at the end of a reading. Having attended many literary readings, I dread the usual questions about where authors get their ideas or those prefaced […]
Finding the Form with Fiona Tinwei Lam
The writing process for me has never been linear. I tend to circle around themes and subjects, revisiting them over the years, trying different approaches to go deeper, to attempt to plumb the symbolism and connections. It has surprised me how often that yet another poem will emerge about my mother’s prolonged struggle with early […]
What’s Morgan Dick Reading?
For many years, I considered myself allergic to poetry. Most of the poets I studied in school were eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Englishmen who wrote about beautiful women, so you can see why I thought the form silly and self-important. By my twenties, I’d done my best to avoid reading it. Beyond a few mopey verses […]