The Fiddlehead Supports Black and Indigenous Lives

The Fiddlehead recognizes the white supremacy at work in countries around the world, including Canada. We recognize its presence in literary culture, including our own organization, whose genre editors and staff are and have been predominantly white. We pledge to prioritize offering staff and editorial roles to Black, Indigenous and other equity-seeking people as these positions become available. We will also step up our efforts to make diversity a central consideration in our acquisitions process, soliciting material if writers from Indigenous, Black and other equity-seeking groups do not submit otherwise. We will also continue to offer free workshops aimed at supporting developing writers from equity-seeking groups. Discussions about further support are ongoing. 

We believe that Black lives matter, and we mourn the loss of countless lives at the hands of anti-Black violence. We invite any readers who are uncertain about why this needs saying to visit blacklivesmatter.com. 

We believe that Indigenous lives must be protected from the impacts of colonial violence, and we mourn the deaths of Chantal Moore and Rodney Levi at the hands of police in our own region, known as the province of New Brunswick. 

We support calls to defund the police and move these governmental monies toward health, education, housing, and other community resources that will mitigate the need for and the violence of policing institutions.