Category: Interviews

We're excited to announce that Emma Miao, a poet from Vancouver, BC, is the winner of the 2020 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize! Her poem “Rabbits on the Balcony” will appear in the Spring 2021 issue of The Fiddlehead. Born in 2004, she was commended in the 2019 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, won the 2021 Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Contest, and has been published in numerous literary journals. Check out editorial assistant Eliza Ives' interview with Emma about her prize-winning poem!

Thank you again to our judges Canisia Lubrin, Jenna Albert and Adèle Barclay and to all who entered the poetry contest! 

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 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. 

Editorial Assistant Taidgh Lynch recently spoke to Naoko Kumagai about her short-fiction piece Karafuto, which was published in The Fiddlehead No. 285 (Autumn 2020). Kumagai has been published in Room magazine, Ricepaper magazine, and Event, and was also longlisted for the CBC non-fiction prize. She lives in Toronto

Editorial Assistant Joel St. Peters recently connected with poet John Barton to discuss his poetry, the AIDS crisis, and the victimization of the queer community. 

John Barton is the current Poet Laureate of Victoria. He has published eleven books of poetry and nine chapbooks. His most recent collection of poetry—a book of sonnets entitled Lost Family: A Memoir—has just been published, his first in six years. Three pieces from this new collection, “Bathhouse Raids, Toronto, 1981,” “HIV: A History,” and “Coda for the Victims,” were featured in The Fiddlehead’s Summer 2020 issue. 

Morgan Charles' story Plagued was the winner of our 2020 Creative Nonfiction Contest. Recently, editorial board member William Bonfiglio spoke to Morgan about compassion, helplessness and writing during a pandemic. 

Plagued is featured in our upcoming Fall Issue 285. Click Read more for the full interview! 

Rebecca Givens Rolland’s creative nonfiction piece, “The Magnesium”, appears in The Fiddlehead No. 283 (Spring 2020). Editorial Assistant Taidgh Lynch conducted the following interview via email in May 2020.

The Fiddlehead Editor Sue Sinclair interviewed Conor Kerr about his poem, "Amiskwaciy Nehiyawak (Beaver Hills Cree),” that won our Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and will appear in the Spring 2020 issue of The Fiddlehead (no. 283).

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.