Fiction

Shane Neilson
Import-Export

The Halifax mafia never had to sell cornpuffs to meet Morris' quota.

KAREN SOLIE
Sturgeon

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LISA BIRD-WILSON
Blood Memory

In the home for unwed mothers, as she waits for me to be born, one word in Cree is spoken over and again in her head—macitwawiskwesis, bad girl.

LYNN COADY
The Natural Elements

Men left women and women left men and it was all perfectly legal—even natural.

DANA MILLS
Western Girl

I met Ryan at the smok

BRUCE MCDOUGALL
Talent Night

Sometimes my dad played cribbage in the evenings with Mr. Coward. They just sat there like two old men and drank rye whisky from juice glasses.

Rhonda Waterfall
The Last Note

She opened her date book. One Post-It Note said, Pick up alfredo sauce and the other said, Have sex with a stranger.

CHRIS GILPIN
Dear Sasquatch

You're the kind of creature who comes to events like these and sits in the corner writing confessional poetry.

BILLEH NICKERSON
McPoems

Poems of memorable customers: the one who ordered a hundred cheeseburgers, the one who bought three meals a day at the drive-thru, the drunk one in a clown suit, and more.

Sara Cassidy
Beautiful Days

Thinking back to the lovely black turtleneck years, before the crinkles and the white hairs.

Sina Queyras
Five Stories, Nine Selves

That’s what matters to me, these stories, you kick them up in the dust and they get inside you.

JACK MITCHELL
Battle Ready

And so the Marquis of Montcalm • now brought them to the field of warHis handsome face was glad • for in his heart • he knew the hour had come When destiny would be decided • ’neath impregnable Quebec

DOMENICO CAPILONGO
I Thought Elvis Was Italian

pictures of my father slick-haired & sideburned my uncles had all his albums older cousins played the hawaii concert whenever I was over

ALICE PETERSEN
Salsa Madre

"Mother Mary approves of recycling. She gave birth in a barn, after all, even though where she is now she probably has most things in gold and jasper."

HAL NIEDZVIECKI
Darker Country

I have never been a success at anything in particular.

DANA MILLS
Steaming for Godthab

We’ve been outside for months now. We’re getting the way we do after so long without sight of land or a woman. Last night Vince licked my neck.

Stephen Smith
Men + Men

We have men on the slope and men on the ridge. In the gully, more men. Men on the main road wait for the men on the esker to move up onto the ridge so that they (the men on the road) can take their (the esker-men’s) place. Men hesitate and grumble. T

Jill Boettger
Country Music Love

You are clearly preoccupied with love. See the way you siftthrough the lint from your purse, searching for the backing ofan earring. See the runway of broken leaves and bread crumbscollecting under the emergency brake in your car. Messy, messy.

RAWI HAGE
Empty City

Ten thousand bombs had fallen and I was waiting for death to come and scoop its daily share from a bowl of limbs and blood. I walked down the street under the falling bombs. The streets were empty. I walked above humans hid

CATHERINE OWEN
Un Patient est Trouvé Mort: Haikus from the French

1. a quitté l’urgence de l’hopital vers six heures hier matin : Yesterday morning I was not thinking about You, only, faltered

EVELYN LAU
Into the Fire

Again we found ourselves at the shoreline,among shards of shell and plastic,scrim of seaweed trapping my feet like a net.

JONNY DIAMOND
Dave Is Dead

For a man who’d once picked a shard of glass from his cheek while laughing, Dave sure could write a pretty melody.

GARY GEDDES
Switchbacks

I saw my mother under sedation in the Psych Ward, after she collapsed at the funeral. She foresaw the bridge disaster, but no one believed her, not even father. Her “visions” made him uneasy.

Sarah Selecky
Cake

Having a sweet spot for someone isn’t the same as being in love