Published in 1974, issue one hundred of The Fiddlehead is not only entertaining but a deeply moving celebration, offering a glimpse into the past to see how far the journal has come and to see the words of those who worked so hard to get it to where it is today. A bold sticker – “Take that, Toronto!” – gloats on its cover and sets the stage for editor Kent Thompson’s no-holds-barred editorial in which he takes aim at the literary establishment in Toronto, riffing off his new book review editor’s opinion on literary reviews as “mutual puffery.” According to Thompson, “The other magazines, yes, they do that, all the time . . . and everything he says about reviewing is true to them, but is quite untrue of us. We’re different. We’re better.” We can glimpse the visions and aspirations he had for the magazine.
This issue features important writers. One worth mentioning is Carol Shields who appears in this issue with three short poems romanticizing average quotidian occurrences. In 1993, nearly two decades after being published in our magazine, Shields’ book The Stone Diaries was the recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and in 1995 she won the Pulitzer Prize. Other prominent writers featured in the issue include poet Elizabeth Brewster, a founding member of The Fiddlehead who contributes three poems, and fiction writer Alan Mackenzie. The interpretation of I Ching hexagrams are at the center of one of Brewster’s poems, divided into three sections, each offering a different meaning. Alan MacKenzie’s short story examines the line between life and death and at what point is death considered a gift through the eyes of a seemingly normal high school football player
Another unique characteristic of this issue is that it is scattered with stunning drawings by Robert Percival, which capture human emotions in vulnerable moments. All pictures are set in a hospital and one man reappears throughout the issue in Percival’s drawings. Percival reminds us of our inescapable mortality. The facial expressions on the man’s face exudes pain and sadness. His eyes are the windows to his soul. In one of the drawings, a man is surrounded by health care professionals, but is lonely all the same. Percival does a terrific job in depicting a rather bleak experience, using shadowing techniques to illustrate a hopelessness, an absence of light and happiness.
Bailey Noiles
Intern, February 2022
Contents
Fiction
19 Alan MacKenzie: The Bird Killer
43 John Metcalf: The Practice of the Craft
Poetry
5 Elizabeth Brewster: Three Poems
9 Valerie Chatterton: Two Poems
11 H. C. Dillow: Two Poems
13 John Ditsky: Barterings
15 Mark Frutkin: Three Poems
29 Edward Harbin: Three Poems
32 Calvin Lapp: Three Poems
35 Akis Patapiou: At the Lakeshore
36 T. D. MacClulich: Three Poems
54 Mark Abley: Riding an Elephant
55 Carole Marks Schulkind: In Circles of the Civilized
56 Carol Shields: Three Poems
58 Albert Stainton: Nine Poems
68 R. D. Wayne Tompkins: Two Poems
70 Gordon Turner: And the Dogs Shit Around Us
72 Derk Wynand: Hannelore
73 Brian Henderson: Five Poems
Articles
61 Edward Mullaly: Canadian Drama
79 Russell Hunt: Reflections on Book Reviewing
Reviews
83 Anthony S. Brennan: Westmount Fantasies
A Woman of Her Age, Jack Ludwig
87 Clare MacCulloch: New Clothes for an Emperor
What's so big about green? Earle Birney
92 Allen Bentley: Invitation to a Nightmare
The Carbon Copy, Anthony Brennan
95 M. Travis Lane: The Muskrat in His Brook
The Musktrat in His Brook: Thanks for a Drowned Island, A. G. Bailey
102 David Cavanagh: Mining For Mythos
Coppermine, Don Gutteridge
Art
Drawings by Robert Percival
105 Contributors
Letters to the Editor
107
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