The girl detective Nancy has always been inspirational and questionable—until her newest incarnation
Emily Pohl-Weary
At three-thirty, when local high schools let out, I regularly caught the Dufferin bus near my place in downtown Toronto and used the long ride northbound to Yorkdale Mall to snoop on teens’ conversations, Shazam songs they were playing too loudly on earbuds, and read flirty chat messages over their shoulders. While I kept a […]
With increasingly frequent wildfires creating chaos in the US and Canada comes the need for communities to rebuild. A look into that process and what it means for the people and natural environment affected.
andrea bennett
As you pass the trailhead of the Pacific Crest Trail on the western edge of Cascade Locks, Oregon—the terminus point of Cheryl Strayed’s hike in Wild—the path curves upwards. It curves away from the river, away from the highway, and into a stand of second-growth Douglas fir trees. I’m on a guided hike with Roberta […]
The decision of whether or not to bring children into the world is always complex. Here, identity, ancestry, age, capitalism and climate change are all part of the considerations.
Thirza Cuthand
Being a Plains Cree non-binary lesbian with a non- functioning uterus makes baby-making hard. And the looming pressure of total environmental and climate collapse has made a lot of my friends choose not to have children at all. Is it selfish to bring a child into the world as it stands now? And can I […]
Nookaa starts her new job in seventeen minutes and still decides to take some time deciding what androgynous items of clothing to wear, responds to a text from her partner to “talk” later that day, and also reminds White Boy #326 where the closest movie rental place is, right on Commercial Drive. In the cab […]
The Graceville Motel stands thirty feet from the town’s main road. Its lime-green siding has faded. Swirls of dirt frame the white doors. I can see marks where someone attempted to wash them; whoever it was never bothered with the edges of the doors. It’s like they scrubbed down the middle and said, “Close […]
The house behind mine caught fire I saw petal scrap ashes floating down first and thought it was a wild fire thickening the sky like the last summer I was on a bench with a boy I didn’t want to date couldn’t say no because he had a body I had the time it takes […]
Wheat fields in the wind pulsing with air welling up inside a glittering of green on summerland grassland, the hissingof August lawns as air snakes out of blades like auto lot inflatables, one-legged air-dancers for a yawning audience, gazilions vying for envy, sashay stirring up sway in tinsel tassel anemones, an aquatic shimmering of chartreuse […]
When You've Built a Shrine to Your Problematic Fave
mel monoceros
Dear Bjork, The year leading up to my 30th birthday almost killed me, quite literally. The stress from my living situation at the time was pushing me to the edge of my sanity. I was living in a place I didn’t want to be in because I had gotten priced out of the place I’d […]
From his time studying classical music in the 1960s to decades spent writing songs and performing on CBC’s Mr. Dressup, Glenn Copeland has long been interested in looking inwards to “the core of one’s own being.” Seventy-five and a practicing Buddhist, he has never been too concerned with signifiers of success or following musical trends. […]
It’s one o’clock in the morning and I’m tired. Matthew and the three or four remaining guests are in the living room and I smile as I hear their laughter. I’m sneaky. I grab the speakers’ remote-control and lower the volume gradually, every minute or so, until Dolly Parton is hushed in her desperate pleas […]