All articles

By Alex Carey

Brent van Staalduinen has won our 25th annual Short Fiction Prize for his story "Skinks." Brent van Staalduinen lives, works, and finds his voice in Hamilton. Saints, Unexpected, his novel of urban magical realism, will be published by Invisible Publishing in April 2016. His work appears or is forthcoming in The Sycamore Review, Prairie Fire Magazine, The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 8, The Prairie Journal, EVENT Magazine, The Dalhousie Review, The New Quarterly, Litro Magazine, The Nottingham Review, Urban Graffiti, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, and teaches creative writing at Redeemer University College.

By Robert Norsworthy

Michael Eden Reynolds has won our 25th annual Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem for "False Dichotomy or Monocot." Michael Eden Reynolds’ first book, Slant Room, was published by PQL in 2009. His second manuscript, Elsewhere Thought Known, has already been published in a parallel universe. Michael lives in Whitehorse where he works as a mental health/addictions counsellor.

By Ian LeTourneau

By now everyone has likely heard “Spirits,” the first track of The Strombellas' new album Hope that’s seemingly taken over the airwaves.

A life has a remarkable durability and fragility. In this issue we mark the passing of Frances (Firth) Gammon, who was just short of a hundred years old at the time of her death. She attended the University of New Brunswick during the Second World War and was a member of the Bliss Carman Society, which was a group of undergraduates interested in poetry under the direction of Alfred Bailey. As a way of recording the poetry produced by their group, the members of society established a modest little journal, which they decided to call The Fiddlehead.

Congratulations to all of the finalists for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize! This year's international shortlist includes Norman Dubie's collection The Quotations of Bone. The Fiddlehead has published Dubie's poems on two previous occasions, in issues No. 241 (Autumn 2009) and No. 262 (Winter 2015), and those poems appear in The Quotations of Bone.

I’ve been playing a lot of Kurt Vile, especially Smoke Ring for my Halo and b’lieve i’m going down; the latter took longer to grow on me but now I like it a lot. Also dug out some old vinyl, including Gilded Palace of Sin by Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Bros and can now declare that Sneaky Pete on steel guitar is an unheralded genius of the 1970s.  Also want to plug an odd tune, "Saddle in the Rain," by John Prine: produced by Steve Cropper of Memphis, has horns, and about as funky as you will hear Prine the folkie get.

Get ready Fredericton for an onslaught of readings! Qwerty Reads on April 14, odd sundays on April 17, and two Atlantic Book Awards Festival events on April 20 & 21, featuring shortlisted authors for New Brunswick Book Awards and Atlantic Book Awards!

The Fiddlehead is pleased to present the winners of our 25th annual literary competition!