Editor's Note
Bienvenue and welcome to carte blanche issue 55. After an eclectically international issue in summer 2026, we decided to bring it closer to home by featuring creators from Quebec and Canada only. Unsurprisingly, it was no less eclectic than any other issue of the magazine, with comics, creative nonfiction, fiction, photography, poetry, and translation from the country’s emerging and established writers that, we hope, will leave you feeling proud.
A selection from Maggie McPhee’s photo series I Can Never Get There graces our cover. There are so many possibilities in each dreamy space captured, which live on in the microcosmic thumbnails accompanying each piece in the issue. Thank you, Maggie, for expertly setting the broody and enchanting mood. In perfect concert with our cover art is H.R. Link’s series Window/Frames, which allows viewers to ponder the edges of confined space and what may lie on the other side.
The singular comic featured this issue—Kate Lavut’s “The Boob”—is simultaneously an understated portrayal of the fear and uncertainty of receiving a cancer diagnosis and the innocence of a child’s understanding of such topics. Lavut’s larger work, from which this selection is excerpted, is sure to pull a variety of heartstrings.
The poetry section, curated by Veronique Synnott, features five dazzling arrays of voices. In Sarah Burgoyne’s “i do the dishes while the magpies build a bridge,” the speaker observes magpies crossing the setting sun, imagining them as her sisters, while her mother is “the entire west out the window.” Elsewhere, a woman struggles to tell her dinner companions about the domestic violence she is experiencing; Icarus sends his final voice note to his father via WhatsApp, a speaker watches a house “birth flames”; and an aunty feasts on her prayers, “preferring the taste of windfall over heavy meals.” These striking and evocative works by Chanel Sutherland, Calypso Andre, Alana Dunlop, and Poonam Dhir offer glimpses into worlds shaped by memory, longing, and vulnerability.
Curated by Cate McNeil, the creative nonfiction section features “Everything is About Cancer, Except Cancer, Which is About Me” by Caroline Little and “The Mountain” by Willy Blomme. In Little’s deeply personal essay, she explores the complexities of being an adult daughter confronting her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, while witnessing other families and neighbours facing similar hardships. “I wish I didn’t know that you should always send food in a crisis, so that people remember to eat,” she writes, reflecting on the painful knowledge that comes with illness and loss. In Blomme’s “The Mountain,” snapshots of Montreal’s Mount Royal unfold across changing seasons, from an “ash-orange sky” thick with forest fire smoke to wintery encounters on its slopes, capturing a shifting landscape shaped by slippery human interactions, and an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Curated by Nicola Danby alongside 2026 Fresh Pages Editorial Mentee Maya Mohammad, the translation section features “The Evil Eye,” an excerpt from On m’a jeté l’oeil, translated by H Felix Chau Bradley and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch. Through vivid snapshots, the Algerian narrator navigates a world of superstition and volatile family dynamics. In “NUMBERS; or, DES NUMÉROS” Misha Solomon translates Jean-Paul Daoust's provocative story of a late-night gay sexual encounter, originally published in 1989.
Two compelling stories, “Croc Country” by Anya Leibovitch and “@skunkgrl69” by Sabrina Michael, make up the fiction section, curated by Liana Cusmano. In “Croc Country,” Leibovitch immerses readers in a second-person narrative, where the promise of an exotic Australian adventure gives way to the decidedly unglamorous realities of working on a banana plantation in a sparsely populated town. Meanwhile, in Michael’s “@skunkgrl,” a jaded narrator observes the world around her from a streetcar as she runs late for her shift at a vape shop. Though distinct in setting and style, both stories feature protagonists attempting to find their footing in a world shaped by shifting social expectations, power dynamics, and the complexities of human connection.
A heartfelt thank you to all of our section editors for selecting the strong and moving words and artwork that make up our final issue of 2026. We’re grateful for everyone who helped bring this issue together.
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Jade Palmer & Greg Santos
Managing Editor & Editor in Chief
carte blanche
October 2026