About

Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine
ISSN 1916-8454.

“We can feel we’re beginning from nothing when searching for marginalized histories amid the official history of the privileged, but there have always been people making art and surviving outside the mainstream.”
Sandra Alland, “My Arrival at Crip” in HAL issue 12.2, 2019-20

HAL is an ongoing activist project with a community focus operated by a collective of artists and writers. HAL publishes Hamilton Arts and Letters, a biannual magazine presenting new literary works, graphic novel excerpts, exploratory writing, poetry, literary non-fiction, and the work of visual, audio, and film artists. We encourage the development of emerging writers and artists.

Founded in 2008 by Paul Lisson, Fiona Kinsella, and Peter Stevens. Dear Peter left us in 2015.

David Forsee (1944-2017) was a Contributor and Editor with HAL beginning in 2013-14.

Shane Neilson has been a Contributing Editor with HAL since 2015. He is a poet, physician, literary critic, and scholar of Canadian literatures who lives with disability.

HAL:

• has a dis/ability focus and is affiliated with Ontario D/deaf/HoH, Disabled, Mad, Sick and Neuroatypical Poetics Collective, a collective that resists ableism and supports disabled artists.
• stands with those acting to end systemic racism.
• recognizes and supports the history, creativity, and courage of sexually diverse communities.
• is made by artist labourers and supports workers’ rights.
• advocates for Climate Action.

HA&L is funded in part by Government Agencies, Private Foundations, Sponsors, and Advertisers, as well as Open Access Subscription.
Members & Donors play a huge role keeping this activist initiative going – Thank you!

HA&L acts as recommender for the Ontario Arts Council Grants for Writers program.

HA&L is a co-founder of the Short Works Prize for Hamilton area authors.

Peter Stevens (1963 – 2015)
Comet
a fiery tail
a shooting star

Our friend and colleague Peter Stevens studied Graphic Design at Sheridan College, followed by advanced photography courses at Zone VI in Vermont. He had many solo and group exhibitions of his own, and collaborated on projects with numerous visual and performing artists in and beyond the Hamilton area. Founding Art Director for the magazine Hamilton Arts & Letters. Past Photo Editor for Broadway Magazine, past coordinator for the Wordsmith Gallery, and past Board Member of the Photo Union Gallery. Peter and his wife, Hamilton based artist Vesna Trkulja-Stevens, made a beautiful life together.

David Hutchison Forsee (1944-2017)

David’s Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis led him to request Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and he passed away pain-free in February 2017. David transformed us and he transformed Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine. HAL Contributing Editor beginning in 2013. Guest Editor for Issue nine.2. Featured Memoirs in ASYLUM issue 10.1. He is fiercely missed.

 

“Everything that’s extreme is difficult. The middle parts are done more easily. The very center requires no effort at all. The center is equal to equilibrium. There’s no fight in it.”
— Daniil Kharms