Category: Features

The Fiddlehead's 2021 Creative Nonfiction contest is now open and we're excited to announce that Chelene Knight will be judging this year's submissions! 

Rose Maloukis

These Weeds

Spasms trouble a tired body, little flesh, no hunger. 
Leaves cycle, vanish, more and more empty sky.

Dishes fallen to the floor. A mouthful of beaten rice — I cannot swallow! 

A purple balloon buffeted by slow circulation, no direct draft.
Surface highlights, rotations wobble, roll then lull, they are imbalanced.
Are you alive if your breath — the balloon, under the blouse, senseless —
         vacant.

Ruben's Salmon by Elise Thorburn is the winning story from our 2020 Short Fiction Contest:

Excerpt

Fiction contest judge, Shashi Bhat's editorial on Elise Thorburn's winning story Rubens' Salmon:

We're excited to announce that Elise Thorburn is the winner of our 2020 Fiction Contest and $2000 prize! Her story Rubens' Salmon is featured in our Winter issue no. 286, which is available now! 

Elise Thorburn has a Ph.D. in media and technology studies. She has published in academic journals, and wrote, co-produced and hosted a podcast on the history of electronic monitoring. She is an avid reader, a medical student and a prison abolitionist. This is her first published work of fiction.

Thank you to all who entered the fiction contest and congratulations to the fourteen finalists. And thanks again to our judge Shashi Bhat!

"I often asked famous writers for addresses with the hope of obtaining work for The Fiddlehead; almost no one ever responded to my emails later, but Marvin replied with genuine enthusiasm, and so began a longtime relationship with the magazine."

Retired Editor Ross Leckie remembers Marvin Bell. 

"I have a sense of responsibility and humility as well as overwhelming gratitude about the work I do to bring Acadian writers to another audience."

Editorial Assistant William Bonfiglio interviews Jo-Anne Elder. 

“Accept this rock, its odd love”

Crow Gulch, Douglas Walbourne-Gough. Goose Lane Editions, 2019.

. . . careful, layered creation

A Dark House and Other Stories, Ian Colford. Vagrant Press, 2019.

“Tronno Hijabi”

Washes, Prays, Noor Naga. McClelland and Stewart, 2020.