It is important to me to elevate the voices of female writers from my city. Voices that are rich, diverse and often lost in the shadows of larger cities like Vancouver and Toronto. In light of everything happening in the USA and around the world right now, it feels even more imperative to make sure I use this space to showcase a book from a Black author. This Is How We Disappear by Edmonton poet Titilope Sonuga is a book of raw beauty and fierce joy.

The most engaging musicians for me lately, are ones who have perfected the art of music as Trojan horse. Unleashing their rage from within a perfect overlay of pop, R&B, or Indigenous drumming, Janelle Monáe, King Princess, Eastern Owl, and U.S. Girls, create sublime melodies and catchy hooks that tackle an array of topics not often captured in song.

Dafna Izenberg won the 2019 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.

Remember The Fiddlehead's CNF Contest deadline is June 1st! You could win $2000! Ariel Gordon will judge the submissions.

Let me make the case that the greatest TV show of all time is the German comedy, Der Tatortreiniger—that’s “Crime Scene Cleaner” in English. It’s an auteur comedy starring Berne Madel as our everyman-with-a-gross-but-interesting-job. Over the course of 31 episodes they explore every aspect of death, and more importantly, life.

The Fiddlehead Editor Sue Sinclair interviewed Ariel Gordon about writing poetry, writing creative nonfiction, and integrating science in her essays.

Ariel Gordon is this year's judge of our Creative Nonfiction Contest!
($2000 CAD for the best CNF Essay! Deadline: June 1, 2020)

Photo credit: Mike Deal

Disability is a spectrum we all experience at some point in varying degrees. We have all been sick and will get sick, and our physical and cognitive experience will change as we age. Accidents, illnesses, and impairments are a fundamental part of the human condition, as true as being born, needing breath, nourishment and love.

Is there anyone else out there who loves a big, thick, old-fashioned novel that is written with such sparkle and fluidity that you dive right in and only come up for air at three am when your vision shuts down and your bed has become a raft on the ocean of that new world? A.S. Byatt’s Possession is one such book for me.

This New York Times bestseller is an utterly fascinating look at the field of neuroscience, which is in the midst of a radical shift. 

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).

Congratulations to all the Fiddlehead authors and friends whose work has been shortlisted for 2020 Alberta Literary Awards and the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, both administered by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta to recognize the best literary works created or published in 2019 by Alberta and Edmonton authors.