We're excited to announce that the winner of our 2023 Creative Nonfiction Contest and $2000 prize is Nancy Huggett! Her essay "I am a good mother. I am a bad mother. I am no mother at all" is featured in the upcoming autumn issue of The Fiddlehead (no.301).
Whenever I listen to music, I’m searching for emotional devastation.
Before I hunker down to write, early in the morning, while the world is still dark, I will often go on long drives, blasting music that incites these feelings; those that break down my walls and allow me to reach a place of raw vulnerability. Particularly if I’m writing poetry.
Kaleidoscope: Shifting borders of dream, reality, fictions and memories
A Year of Last Things, Michael Ondaatje. McClelland and Stewart, 2024.
We were saddened to learn about the recent passing of Elisabeth Harvor on October 8. Though she lived in Ottawa for a long time, she was born in New Brunswick, growing up on the Kingston Peninsula. Her parents were the renowned Deichmann potters (ceramic tiles made by them can be found in front of a fireplace in The Fiddlehead office). Over the years, we have published her work numerous times: by our count, 5 stories and 7 poems (see list below).
As an avid reader, and because reading is such a personal thing, it’s difficult for me to recommend one book to people I’ve never met. But in keeping with the theme of my story, Children of the Gentle People, which centres around food and friendship during times of unease, I’d like to suggest one beloved book: Lolo Houbein’s One Magic Square.
