“Tell me a story,” my dad would say, walking down the path. It could be fall, or spring, winter, or summer – we walked all over the place, at any time, given any opportunity. “But what should it be about?” I was overwhelmed … Continue reading Twenty Migrations • by Renessa Visser
HAVING A CHILDRAISED THE GHOSTOF MY MOTHER a short storyby Vanessa Green A week before Halloween 25 years ago, I walked into my mother’s hospital room bursting with excitement. I couldn’t wait for her to see my old lady costume. My best friend and I had spent weeks trawling second-hand shops for the perfect get … Continue reading Short Story • by Vanessa Green
BOOK REVIEW by JIM NASON TORONTO REVIEWS VICTORIA QUEER POSITIONS, NAKED PROSE: THE VULNERABLE WE JOHN BARTON’S We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos [Windsor: Palimpsest Press, 2019, SALE: $15.96] In 2007, along with Billeh Nickerson, John Barton edited Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets. At the time, standing with my … Continue reading Book Review: Jim Nason / John Barton
BOOK REVIEW by GEOFF MARTIN A DISCERNIBLE TRAIL: ON RE-READING “IN BED WITH THE WORD” SAN FRANCISCO REVIEWS HAMILTON DANIEL COLEMAN’S In bed with the Word [Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2009, $19.95] I first read Daniel Coleman’s In Bed with the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics aloud in bed, ten years ago this … Continue reading Book Review: Geoff Martin / Daniel Coleman
DECLINING HOPE BY LORRAINE YORK As I write this, Hamilton queer activists are organizing a day of action to protest the arrest of colleagues who were defending themselves against an alt-right assault at 2019 Hamilton Pride. A bit further up the lake, the city of Toronto has been facing an onslaught of draconian cuts to … Continue reading Declining Hope • by Lorraine York
A LITTLE TRUTH (short story) By Darrell Doxtdator There were those who said that my Tótha was a witch. For those not familiar with the language of the Mohawk Nation, Tótha is the term of affection for “Grandma”. And a witch holds powerful medicine. Further, it is said that among a witch’s powers is the … Continue reading Short Story • by Darrell Doxtdator
BOOK REVIEW by J.S. Porter FROM GLOBAL VILLAGE TO GLOBAL MEMBRANE: A REVIEW OF B.W. POWE’S THE CHARGE IN THE GLOBAL MEMBRANE, WITH STREET ART PHOTOS BY MARSHALL SOULES “The new electric environment is a collective poem.” – Marshall McLuhan Two implicit questions skulk around in B.W. Powe’s new book: Who are … Continue reading REVIEW: J.S. Porter / B.W. Powe
Burning Questions for My Grandma BY MIRIAM CLAVIR “What’s the difference between boys and girls?” I asked my grandma when I was six. This was in the early 1950s, and we were walking to her small store below the second-floor lobby of a bowling alley on Toronto’s Bloor Street. In the Adele Hat Shoppe … Continue reading Memoir • Miriam Clavir
BOOK REVIEW by Paul R. Dekar Superabundantly Alive. Thomas Merton’s Dance with the Feminine by Susan McCaslin and J.S. Porter With a forward by Lynn Szabo and afterward by Jonathan Montaldo. [Wood Lake Publishing, 2018. $19.96 / e-Book or Kindle: $12.48] Cistercian monk, priest and writer, Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an influential post-Second … Continue reading REVIEW: Paul R. Dekar / McCaslin & Porter
BOOK REVIEW NUMBER 6 I’M GOING TO TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT A BOOK Daniel Coleman and In Bed with the Word (BOOK REVIEW) BY JEREMY LUKE HILL I’m going to tell you a story about a book. A few months ago I attended a reading at The Bookshelf, an independent bookseller in Guelph. I didn’t … Continue reading Letters • Daniel Coleman / Jeremy Luke Hill
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