fiction

"Jamais Vu" by Julia Williams

They agreed that birthdays were ridiculous once you got past thirteen. Ditto Christmas. Instead, they developed a system of generalized reciprocity — a two-person Kula Ring, Amelia called it — swapping gifts only on holidays like Shrove Tuesday or St. Patrick’s Day.

Mildred’s sixteenth birthday — four months to the day after Amelia’s — they would observe by sneaking into the worst bar in the city. Which bar this was, they hadn’t decided. Until now.

"Water" by Noah Sparrow

You and your boyfriend Ethan are having dinner tonight at your place and tonight you’ve got a serious talk planned. It’s your first real relationship, so you’re a little nervous — but everything will be fine! Probably, at least.

Simple Power: Representation and Resilience in Denison Avenue

Denison Avenue, Christina Wong and Daniel Innes. ECW Press, 2023.

“Lay mang mang, ah See Heeei,” Mrs. Wong’s voice rang out. (Take your time.)

Love and Demons thom vernon's review of Pervatory by RM Vaughan. Coach House Books, 2023.

In Pervatory, the posthumously published last novel by the spectacularly talented RM Vaughan (Richard Murray Vaughan), the iconic queer multi-hyphenate (think novelist, poet, filmmaker, critic, essayist, playwright, and visual artist — squirrel saloons made of pizza...

Editorial Assistant Jamie Kitt's Interview with Clea Young whose story "In Loco Parentis" was published in Issue 299 (Spring 2024)

— Clea Young’s stories have appeared in three volumes of The Journey Prize Stories, and she has twice been shortlisted for the award. Her first collection, Teardown, was published in 2016 with Freehand Books. Her second collection, Welcome to the Neighbourhood, is forthcoming with House of Anansi Press in 2025.

Listening: Explosions in the Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place 

Reading: Becky Chambers – A Psalm for the Wild-Built 

There isn't enough Jim Harrison in this world. One of the few truly original writers of the last 20 years, he belongs to no school, and sits in a category and style uniquely his own. While he is sometimes compared, favourably and unfavourably, to Ernest Hemingway because they both write about Michigan and, sometimes, fishing, the comparison makes as much sense as linking Hemingway with Cervantes because they both write about Spain. 

Steven Heighton's Instructions for the Drowning (Biblioasis) and The Oceanic Society Field Guide to the Gray Whale (Sasquatch Books)

I've been enjoying R. K. Narayan's retelling of The Mahabarata, much condensed from the full epic. It maintains the basic structure and themes, with a cheeky voice, occasionally nodding to the improbability of the events narrated. Highly recommended for anyone dipping their toes into the world of Indian epic.   

Love as a Driving Force by Manahil Bandukwala

A Dream Wants Waking, Lydia Kwa. Wolsak & Wynn, 2023

Lydia Kwa’s A Dream Wants Waking promises a dreamlike narrative through its title and cover, and the short novel certainly delivers. The book opens with a list of characters from the past timeline in Tang China from 644-904 CE and the present timeline of Luoyang in 2219 CE. Told through short chapters that switch back and forth at a rapid pace, Kwa immediately immerses the reader into both timelines of the story.