by Rebecca Salazar
The following interview was conducted via email by Editorial Assistant and member of the Poetry Board Rebecca Salazar. Kim Trainor’s poem “Paper Birch” is the winner of The Fiddlehead’s 2019 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize.
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Read Sneha Madhavan-Reese's "Challenger Deep" from our Winter 2019 issue!
As a literary journal housed in Fredericton, we at The Fiddlehead were moved when we received a poem from Deputy Sheriff Jason Henderson in the wake of the shooting on August 10th in our city. “The Wolf Hunter” is written in honour of law enforcement and is dedicated to Cst Robb Costello and Cst. Sara Burns of the Fredericton Police Force, both of whom were murdered that day along with citizens Donnie Robichaud and Bobbie-Lee Wright. We wish strength to everyone affected by these deaths.
—Sue Sinclair, Editor
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The Wolf Hunter
Interview by Emily Skov-Nielsen, Marketing and Promotions for The Fiddlehead. Rebecca Thomas will be in Fredericton on August 25 to give a workshop "Writing Your Guts Out" from 2-4 at the Fredericton public Library and to give a reading later that evening at 7pm, also at the Fredericton Public Library. For more information, visit the Facebook event here or scroll down to see the poster.
"Qui vincit? (medicamina)"
This house could hold more empty seats but the people
who would sit in them were put away long ago.
There is no work here bring out your dead no bodies left
to pass the piss-test, close the factory down.
Everything is not what you read, old colic torques to form
new cancer a different diagnosis to ponder,
collections of atypical things eventually typify something
— backpain, beatings, boredom, parties —
"Recurrent"
If the river stood still it would
become a mountain.
Built on the backs of mallards
and trout. Their bodies etched
in stone; we dig them out
and blow the dust off. Rebuild
their existence in code, digital preening,
virtually nesting in the shade by the bushes,
gliding on invisible currents we transmit
to one another every moment of our lives.
We cut it back for aesthetics, but
it will always grow. We always come back
"The Day After the Best Before"
By Colin Johnson
Matthew Hollett’s poem “The Day After the Best Before” has won The Fiddlehead’s 2018 Literary Contest Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. This interview was conducted over e-mail by Editorial Assistant Colin Johnson in the first weeks of March 2018 and has been edited for clarity.
By Corinne Shriver Wasilewski
The New Brunswick Book Awards ceremony was held at Memorial Hall at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton on May 24th. It was a wonderful ceremony with music provided by Jane Simpson and Gerard Collins. Colleen Kitts-Goguen emceed the event and David Adams Richards provided an inspiring and moving keynote speech.
