Editor's Note
As I take a peek outside my home office window, there’s currently no snow in Montréal, but those of us who live in this part of the world know this will likely not be the case for much longer. It’s been a relatively mild autumn so far, but with winter on the horizon, I’m having a hard time figuring out how warmly to dress. It’s not quite fall anymore, but it’s also not yet officially winter. We’re existing in a strange in-between zone.
This past fall, I took part in the first in-person reading for my new book which was launched back at the start of the pandemic in 2020, but that I never really got to celebrate in person with the public. I loved the energy and intimacy of being around people IRL. I know many others within the Montréal literary and artistic community and beyond have gingerly been attending more in-person events. I have to admit, it feels good to reconnect with folks. Still, due to personal health reasons, as caretakers for the immunocompromised, or many other equally valid reasons, not everyone has felt comfortable doing so
As a result, we have gotten accustomed to taking part in more hybrid events, where some folks participate in person while others take part online, allowing greater flexibility for individuals who cannot attend in person. Incorporating hybridity, in this context, into our lives has resulted in greater accessibility for many.
With this new reality in mind as well as living in an increasingly hyphenated world where mixing of identities is becoming more of the norm, we invited contributors to consider “Hybridity” as the theme for this issue.
The carte blanche editorial team and I are thrilled to present the results in our final issue of 2022. It features an eclectic variety of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and comics, many which don’t necessarily fit into neat and tidy boxes.
Some issue 44 contributors use the word hybridity as a jumping off point in the content of their work, others play with voice, genre, form, and style. Featuring prose blocks, stream of consciousness texts, journal-like stories, blending of genres, combining visual images with text, and many other exciting variations.
There are several pieces I’d like to highlight include bailey macabre’s piece “kahkisiw,” a vibrant and celebratory comic which explores the mixing of their nêhiyaw/michif/Ukrainian identities.
From the fiction section, Marissa Higgins’s tale “Sick” starts with a funeral and takes the reader on a surprising, taboo blending of bodies. In “If you put it like that, then maybe” by Deborah Zafer, we even get a humorous yet philosophical discussion between the narrator and the various parts of their anatomy, including Body, Mind, Liver, and Stomach.
Laura Mota writes “flowers point at a lack that scratches my existence… daily, my belly button reminds me that I am drilled. / from there I’ve lost my father, my country, my language.” In the Taiwanese-Brazilian writer/photographer/experimentalist’s poetry there is a sense of being in a perpetual state of existing in-between places.
In the creative nonfiction piece “X” by Erin Soros, we as readers find ourselves literally in an in-between place. We have been dropped, in medias res, and tied up in the middle of a mysterious room: “The hour could be day. It could be night. This could all be a dream: everything that brought you here, where you are, and who you are.” We explore and unravel the musings of the narrator as if we too are in solitary confinement.
These are only but a small sampling of the stellar pieces found in this “Hybridity” issue, so take your time browsing through them all and do feel free to let us know your thoughts in our comments section.
A few other items to take note in this issue. Firstly, as part of the QWF College Writers Award, you will find the 2021 award-winning story “A Fisher’s Parade” by Julian Button-Nadon featured in our fiction section.
Secondly, as part of the QWF’s “Fresh Pages” initiative, I am so pleased that this issue features Highlights from the Writers in the Community, a special section showcasing writing by at-risk youth and young adults from the QWF’s WIC program. This section was co-curated by 2022 Fresh Pages Guest Editor, Mahta Riazi, and myself.
Lastly, if you haven’t taken a peek at our most recent blog entries yet, please check out our ongoing Alchemists Blog Series, curated by Erin Lindsay. This project will be featuring seven writer/creators whose practices focus on collaboration, hybridity, and interdisciplinarity.
In the spirit of our “Hybridity” issue, I recommend getting yourself a hot drink and grabbing a hybrid snack (my favourite is the Chicago popcorn mix—blending sweet caramel kernels with salty cheese ones); cozy up to carte blanche on your screen of choice, and have a happy holiday season!
Greg Santos,
Editor-in-Chief
Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, December 2022