This is important in part because it means the benefit to the individual artist and her family will outweigh the relative cost to general tax revenue. It also means that all of her money goes right back into businesses in the local community, since she clearly isn’t making enough money to save or travel. Also, with the security the exemption provides, a highly-skilled artist can devote more of her time to her high-value work, doing more good to the Canadian economy than she would wasting her time at a low-skilled job in order to make ends meet. [Read more...]

But film hasn’t given up. Instead, in peculiar ways, film has worked its way back into the network of billions of images that we share on a daily basis. And what is more curious is this: a large number of digital photographers have rejected the hyper-real pretensions of the early medium in favour of filters and effects that mimic the aberrations and limits of film photography. [Read more...]

Twitter is also a fiction publishing phenomenon. While not as popular as keitai shosetsu (literally, cellphone novel) in Japan, it is increasingly being taken on by serious writers, serious wannabe writers, and seriously get-on-the-bandwagon publishers. [Read more...]

We the word snobs who point out that, for the love of god, it’s ‘80s not 80’s in every comment box we come upon are as unpopular as grade-school snitches. Why fight it? Why not just hand over the lunch money their wanting alot from us? Well all get along better neways. [Read more...]

The panel table was spot lit and a row of microphones were in place, looking very official. The hour the event was to begin came, and then went. The door opened, and all eyes turned to it, hoping to see the audience stream in. Then, shoulders sagged in unison when a lone person appeared, a friend of the bartender, wondering what he had done to disappoint. [Read more...]

I don’t necessarily agree with Fry that language is not evolving. As a professor in a Department of English, I get to watch its evolution every day. My students use words very differently than I do. They use nouns as verbs, negatives as positives, cultural references as common knowledge. [Read more...]

carte blanche is a not-for-profit project published by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. As an online literary publication, we rely on funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the support of individual sponsors. Our editorial staff is largely volunteer and generously donate their time to keep carte blanche going. [Read more...]

Calling all poets: the deadline for the Montreal International Poetry Prize, is July 8th. 40 of your best lines could win you a prize of $50,000!
Submit now. [Read more...]

There are a couple of characteristics of funny fiction. Rules of behavior are often being broken (the merely embarrassing and rude as well as the lewd and scandalous). Things that aren’t usually talked about comfortably (or taboos) are tricky because we all have different taboos. More specifically, we have different limits to which we can be pushed and made to feel uncomfortable. I suppose this can account for what is often called “taste.” Stories don’t need to shock to be entertaining, but laughs are often born from discomfort as a kind of release. [Read more...]

Moments of crisis – whether in the form of global disasters or more personal catastrophes – change our lives. Following a crisis, we question our values, change our habits, reflect on the past, and rethink the future. What better way to do this than through story? Stories are built around crises: events, big and small, that transform those who live through them, real or fictional, and challenge the way we see the world. [Read more...]