Category: Features

Editorial Assistant Melissa Spohr Weiss interviewed Barbara Pelman about her creative process—inspiration, poetic form, and the craft of writing. Barbara Pelman’s memoir will appear in the upcoming special 75th anniversary issue of The Fiddlehead.

Editorial Assistant Douglas Walbourne-Gough interviewed April White about her illustrations of garbage that accompany Anna Swanson's poetry in their collaborative project, The Garbage Poems. April White's illustration, "A hum at the edge," will be paired with Anna Swanson’s poem, “Portals,” in the upcoming special 75th anniversary issue of The Fiddlehead that will be published in the spring. 

Editorial Assistant Melissa Spohr Weiss interviewed Anna Swanson about swimming and writing, creating “found poetry” out of “garbage words,” and her mode of poetic creation that at once came out of and embodies the lived experience of physical and cognitive constraints following a serious concussion. Anna Swanson’s poem, “Portals,” will appear in the upcoming special 75th anniversary issue of The Fiddlehead that will be published in spring

Editorial Assistant Melissa Spohr interviewed Susan Musgrave about her creative process, the roles of emotion, dreams, unknowing, and the subconscious, and the poet’s relationship to the poem in its becoming and ongoing revision. Three of Susan Musgrave’s poems—"More Than Seeing," "What We Do,“ and "Life in the Uncontainable World"—will appear in the upcoming special 75th anniversary issue of The Fiddlehead that will be published in spring.

Photo credit: Regina Akhankina

Editorial Assistant Douglas Walbourne-Gough interviewed Sue Goyette about emergence, vulnerability, and engagement in the practices of writing and reading poetry. An excerpt from Sue Goyette's book-length poem, Anthesis, will appear in the upcoming special 75th anniversary issue of The Fiddlehead that will be published in spring.

Emily Bossé won the 2019 Short Fiction Contest for her story, "The Most Beautiful Woman in New Brunswick: Coming to a Field Near You," that will appear in The Fiddlehead no. 282 (Winter 2020).  Editorial Assistant William Bonfiglio conducted the following interview with Emily Bossé about narrative, voice, and omissions.

Georgette LeBlanc's poems "neufs mot," "aux États," and "retour de l'exil" were originally published in Alma (Éditions Perce-Neige, 2007). They are reprinted here and in our Autumn 2019 issue with permission, and with many thanks to Perce-Neige.

I was seven or eight years old when I learned the story of Akedat Yitzchak. It appears in Genesis 22, where God instructs Abraham to take his son Isaac up a mountain and make of him a burnt offering. Abraham complies, or seems to, binding Isaac to an alter and preparing to slit his throat. An angel materializes and tells Abraham, “Don’t do it! You passed the test. God knows that you believe in Him.” Then a ram appears, and Abraham releases Isaac, sacrifices the ram, and down the mountain go father and son.

Dafna Izenberg won this year’s Creative Nonfiction Prize for “The Promised Language,” published in The Fiddlehead, No. 281 (Autumn 2019). Editorial Assistant Jaeden Langlois conducted the following interview with Dafna Izenberg about her relationship to the Hebrew language.

by Megan Kuklis

A review of Melissa Barbeau's The Luminous Sea (Breakwater Books, 2018)