The Frond Issue 297 Autumn 2023
Land Acknowledgement
The Fiddlehead acknowledges that the land on which it is housed is the traditional unceded territory of Wəlastəkewiyik. This territory is covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship which the Wəlastəkewiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with the surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Wəlastəkewiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati titles and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.
Announcements
The Fiddlehead’s general submissions are currently open! Send us your best poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Deadline November 30, 2023.
Congratulations to our following contributors on being selected by Biblioasis for their Best Canadian Series:
Corinna Chong’s “Love Cream Heat” from Issue 293
Anna Moore’s “PKOLS Equinox” from Issue 293
Jean Eng’s “Tai Chi in the Snow” from Issue 293
Lisa Richter’s “Whatever It Takes” from Issue 293
Jenny Hwang’s “Silkworms” from Issue 293
Acadia Currah’s “Femmes Fatales and the Lavender Menace” from Issue 292
Fiona Tinwei Lam’s “Bad Days” from Issue 292
Current Issue
No. 297 (Autumn 2023)
Meet the Cover Artist!
Réjean Roy lives in Northern New Brunswick where he paints and explores his childhood woodlands, but every so often, he packs his paddles and brushes for some distant northern landscape to get inspired. Parallel to his artistic endeavour, Réjean also enjoys creating illustrations for children’s literature for which he participated in over 40 titles throughout the years.
Autumn Issue Launch
Save the date and join us on Thursday, November 16th at 7:00pm AST for the launch of the Autumn issue! This is a hybrid event and will take place in the Third Floor Event Space at the Harriet Irving Library and on Zoom.
The event will feature readings by Creative Nonfiction Contest winner Anne Marie Todkill, contributors Melody Sun and Christine Wu, and friend of The Fiddlehead Matthew Gwathmey! ASL services will be provided.
Online attendees, please email thefiddlehead@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link
Congratulations 2023 Creative Nonfiction Contest Winner Anne Marie Todkill!
Congratulations to Anne Marie Todkill, the winner of our 2023 Creative Nonfiction Contest! Her story “Storm Damage” appears in Issue 297 (Autumn 2023) of The Fiddlehead.
We asked Anne Marie where she likes to write. Here is her response:
Ostensibly, I write in an upstairs room, farthest from disturbance, that offers the trappings of an office along with a leafy, or snowy, view of trees. Ungratefully, I find it hard to stay put in this room of my own. I migrate downstairs in winter (more heat) or to the porch in summer (more light). And then I start thinking the day will be wasted if I don’t go for a walk. It’s only when I’ve overcome my fear of a project (because writing always scares me) that I become properly anchored to my desk. But, much as I value seclusion, there’s something to be said for public spaces for reading and reflection. I’ve been thinking lately of libraries I have known: as a student in Toronto, the Emmanuel College library (I was an interloper in that lovely space), the study room at my women’s residence (so dour, but with tables big enough for a huge map and a plan, had such things been encouraged), certain rooms at Hart House (what makes Gothic Revival so romantic?); and much later, in Ottawa, suburban libraries where I escaped a demanding household (when did everyone become so young?), consultation rooms at the National Archives (an important, stern sort of silence), and the library at the National Gallery (a little-known jewel overlooking the river). The earnestness, concentration, and even anxiety of fellow travellers in these shared spaces can make you feel connected to a collective, expansive, if unspecified, enterprise. Only now, from a distance, do I recognize this as a beneficial energy.
Issue Features
With each new issue, we choose excerpts to feature on The Fiddlehead website. The works featured from the Autumn issue are Peter Luckhart’s “Salt Flats” and Alycia Pirmohamed’s "Highland sonnet with missing histories."
As an added newsletter bonus, we’ve asked these contributors to answer one of the following four questions:
- Can you tell us about the process of writing your story or poetry piece?
- What is your best piece of writing advice?
- Where is your favourite place to write? Or where do you normally write?
- Who would play the screen version of you in the biopic of your life?
Paul Luckhart is a Toronto / tkaronto born writer and photographer. His work has been published in various places, both online and in print. He left Canada in 2015 and has lived in Australia ever since. He currently lives with friends and chickens in Hobart / nipaluna, Tasmania / lutruwita.
Can you tell us about the process of writing "Salt Flats"?
I started writing Salt Flats while living with friends on an old orchard outside of Hobart, Tasmania. The land behind our house was all bushland, and I would spend a lot of time out there following paths or just loafing around. Every weekday, I would bike down the road to the local school where I worked as a crossing guard. Spending time in the bush and with kids got me thinking about my own childhood, and how I was terrified of the forest and bugs, and pretty much everything that might be considered nature. I thought up the first lines while standing by the road, waiting for kids to arrive at school. The story became a dialogue between myself and my childhood-self. It was as if I was saying, “Look. It’s not so scary. I am you, and I love it here.”
Alycia Pirmohamed is a writer and academic based in Scotland. She is the author of the poetry collection Another Way to Split Water.
Can you tell us about the process of writing “Highland sonnet with missing histories?”
This poem emerged from a year of research and notetaking. I came to it with an abundance of material, including field notes from my time hiking in the Scottish Highlands: audio clips, notes in the margins of my reading, photographs, and chaotic, nonsensical, fragments in my journal. I’d also re-encountered a quote from an interview with Ocean Vuong that I’d written down on a post-it note – the epigraph that frames this piece, and which my poem is very much in conversation with. With so much material at hand, I found myself drawn to form. The sonnet provided constraints that helped shape what I wanted to say. I especially loved finding ways to make juxtaposing images echo through sound, employing the form’s musicality and rhyme.
Reviews
Rebecca Geleyn: Lobster Men, Review of Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring
Ian Colford: A Tragedy of Colossal Proportions, Review of The Broken Places by Frances Peck
Coming up: The Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem!
Submissions to the 2023 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem are open from September 1 to December 1. The winning author will be awarded a $2000 prize and their work will be featured in the Spring 2024 issue of The Fiddlehead.
This year’s contest will be judged by Kirby, Sadiqa de Meijer, and Rebecca Salazar!
Kirby’s work includes Behold (2023), a stage adaption of Poetry is Queer (Palimpsest Press, 2021) What Do You Want to Be Called? (Anstruther Press, 2020) This Is Where I Get Off (Permanent Sleep Press, 2019) She’s Having a Doris Day (KFB, 2017) & editor NOT YOUR BEST No. 2, The Queer Ass Fuck Issue (KFB 2021). Their new collection, She, is slated for 2025 as well as a follow-up to Poetry is Queer, MORE. Their Substack column, “The First Time” can be found at Send My Love To Anyone. They are the publisher, purveyor of fine poetry at knife | fork | book poetryisqueer.com
Sadiqa de Meijer has written the poetry collections Leaving Howe Island and The Outer Wards, and the language memoir alfabet/alphabet. Her work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize, Arc's Poem of the Year award, and a Governor General's Literary Award.
Rebecca Salazar (she/they) is a queer, disabled, and racialized Latinx writer currently living on the unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik people. Her writing has appeared in journals across Turtle Island, and in two chapbooks: Guzzle (Anstruther) and the knife you need to justify the wound (Rahila’s Ghost). Their first full-length collection sulphurtongue (McClelland & Stewart) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the New Brunswick Book Awards, the Atlantic Book Awards, and the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award.
We ask our contributors to tell us what books and music they’re excited about and share their responses on The Fiddlehead website. See their latest recommendations now and check back every week for more!