Listen to Michael Hornburg’s story on how his children forever changed his relationship to Remembrance Day.

Michael told his story at This Really Happened at WordFest in Calgary, AB on October 9, 2012. [Read more...]

Last year we introduced themes to carte blanche, with a spring issue on crisis and a fall issue on obsessions. This spring, we opened the call for submissions to anything and everything, to give our writers carte blanche, as it were. [Read more...]

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On a Durban beach, hundreds of translucent orbs carrying long blue cords lay shrivelling in the sun. Gail pulls me aside before I can step down on a stinger; I’ve mistaken them for bits of plastic wrap.
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The four of us were at that difficult age when young males do not yet need to shave but do so anyway. It was early March, a day of false spring but still nippy. Underdressed, our cold-weather gear prematurely left at home, we were shooting hoops in the half court up towards the Sherbrooke end of Addington. Separated by just one row of triplexes from the Expressway’s all-devouring maw, it’s a spot that looms so large in the mythology of me and many of my peers, living and departed, that I tend to forget it’s not necessarily world famous. So I’d better provide a bit of background. [Read more...]

“Paper Person Gets Cheered Up” was created by Meg Ragauskas, a student at Westmount High School. This is the third in a series of three photo essays created by students in Miss Iulia Tripa’s art class at Westmount High. [Read more...]

I married a schizophrenic man to fly. Right out of that homeless shelter on Beaver Street, the one tucked so low and in between Duane Reade and the Sanitation Department you’d hardly notice it even with its burgundy door. It was sleeping on pavement moments that uncorked me. One night of that and I dropped in to the drop-in centre. That’s what they’re calling them now. Two days homeless and he put his hand in mine. He’s all tornado and moan. He’s hearing voices and I wipe sweat off his temples. I want to grab my hand back, he’s a street guy, a vaquero, a younger guy, a muchacho malo. I don’t. I keep my hand there and he steals indiscriminately from my future. [Read more...]

“We Don’t Want Bullies” was created by Anne Huang, Dristy Barua, Van Nhi Dang, and Rong Xie, all students at Westmount High School. This is the second in a series of three photo essays created by students in Miss Iulia Tripa’s art class at Westmount High.
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Listen to all the stories from our storytelling evening, This Really Happened, at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival on April 19th, 2012. [Read more...]