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Issue 11, Volume 16 | November 2019

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Issue 208, Fall 2019

New Fall Issue #208

Featuring Far Horizons Award for Fiction contest winner "Triage" by Jason Jobin, as well as poetry by Ashley Hynd, O-Jeremiah Agbaakin, Sherry Johnson, Jennifer Zilm, Jennifer LoveGrove, Chinua Ezenwo-Ohaeto, Alyda Faber, Andrea Bennett, Weyman Chan, Melanie Power, Yusuf Saadi, James Scoles, Alia Bhimji, Jade Riordan, Catherine Graham, and Jun-long Lee; fiction by Yilin Wang, Morgan Cross, Rachael Lesosky, and Wafa Al-Harbi (translated by Essam M. Al-Jassim); creative nonfiction by D.A. Lockhart, Anuja Varghese, and Mark Anthony Jarman, and more!

Buy now from TMR's site.


Fall Issue Book Review

Apostrophes


In his posthumous  Apostrophes VIII, E. D. Blodgett focuses hard on interiority, the human mind or spirit, sometimes evoking a sense of praise and wisdom comparable to—albeit distinct in form from—Mary Oliver and John Coltrane. He creates trance-like rhythms, using repetitions and a sometimes-cryptic layering of ideas, to describe fragile and enchanted inner forms. Largely ignoring physical things, or surfaces, Blodgett prefers archetypes, like stars, which are always more than stars: “knowing that these were not the stars that everyone believes are stars, / but places where a universe begins before going out, / a particle of dust, perhaps as large as we might be if we / were seen by God in afternoons that are not ours to know” (“Lost”). Blodgett’s wisdom is elemental: our existence on earth is tenuous, frail, like light or dust. His whirling voice depicts humans as dreamy, disoriented, small, as if viewed by God, from a great distance.

Read the full review by John Wall Barger on our website.


CanLit for Your Reading List

New and Noteworthy


Review space may be limited in our quarterly magazine, but we’re delighted to share this list of new Canadian books. *Please note that inclusion on the list does not necessarily preclude a print review. 

Read the full list of new and noteworthy Canadian titles.

General Submissions Open

Open Season Awards 2020

The Malahat Review reads all year 'round and welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from writers at all stages of their careers. Submit your work for free and, if accepted for print, receive $65 CAD per published page.

Read our general submission guidelines on our website.

 

Fall Issue Interview with Yilin Wang on Fiction

Yilin WangMalahat Review volunteer Andrea Perez talks with the Issue #208 contributor about early drafts, family trauma, and intergenerational relationships among women.


AP: What’s something that stayed constant from the first to the final draft of “Fault Lines,” and what is something that you edited out of the story?

YW: In my early drafts, the story had a very different beginning. I originally started my story by depicting the meeting between Dai Ying and Cheng, where Dai Ying offers to pay Cheng money to “rent” him as a “boyfriend” for her visit home during New Year’s celebrations. But as my story evolved, I found that the original beginning was too distracting from my central storyline – the relationship between Dai Ying and her grandma. I removed that earlier section and included some hints of that backstory. My focus on Dai Ying and her grandma’s intergenerational relationship remained the same throughout my editing process.

Read the rest of Yilin Wang's interview as well as an excerpt of "Fault Lines" on our website.

 

Fall Issue Interview with Anuja Varghese on CNF

Anuja VargheseMalahat Review volunteer Kelsie Tan talks with the Issue #208 contributor about cultural expectations, academic vs. creative writing, and inspirational queer women of colour.


KT: Retrospect plays a large role in “Stop Rewind.” Do you think that writing this story has helped you understand your perspective as a child within these circumstances?

AV: I have spent a lot of time asking myself, why didn’t anyone stop what happened from happening? Why didn’t I stop it? Why didn’t my parents stop it? Why didn’t my sister stop it? I think I probably understand my perspective as a child who was born and raised in Canada, in a middle class home, the most clearly. I had no understanding at the time of how heavy the weight of cultural expectations can be, nor any ability to anticipate or stop their crushing repercussions. If anything, writing about what happened helped me understand some of the other perspectives at play and how the pressures that other members of my family were facing might have led to choices that to me, seemed incomprehensible, but to them, seemed unavoidable. Seeing as I am not close to my sister, my father has passed away, and my mother is not the explaining type, writing this story now, as an adult myself, is sort of the only way I know to seek answers to the questions that linger around these events.

Read the rest of Anuja Varghese's interview as well as an excerpt of "Stop Rewind" on our website.

 

Fall Issue Interview with Jun-long Lee on Poetry

Jun-long LeeMalahat Review volunteer Samuel Strathman talks with the Issue #208 contributor about his creative routine, reading Russian poetry, and where his poem was written.


SS: Where did the inspiration for "Lightcarrion" come from?

JL: For the last three years, I have been moving back and forth between Canada, the Caucasus, Crimea, and Eastern Europe. I have noticed changes inside a body that is questionably mine: a layered density, its multiplication; a cyclical moulting; ritual mournings when something is misplaced or buried. “Lightcarrion” was written inside a house that is transparent, constructed from foliage and light. When you begin to resemble a plant, other bodies take on a different meaning. Yours, in the eyes of the transformed and transforming, takes on a different one too.       

Read the rest of Jun-long Lee's interview as well as "Lightcarrion" on our website.

 

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