Editor's Note
Greetings, dear readers!
I’m currently writing this editorial in Montréal at my family’s dinner table with the back door open and a slight breeze rustling papers next to me. It’s still a bit brisk with spring on its way out but I’ve been admiring the recently bloomed peonies in our garden. With the promise of better weather and terrasses for outdoor dining opening up throughout the city, I know many of us are looking forward to these much-needed changes and a reprieve with summer on the horizon.
Over the last two years we have been forced to make many changes in our daily lives and routines to adapt to living in a global pandemic. It has been a messy, lonely, and challenging time for many of us. In the hopes of helping to make a connection with our literary and artistic community, we invited our contributors to consider the theme of “Adaptation” and we are so proud to present our Spring 2022, Issue 43. It features a variety of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and comics which touch on the struggles of adapting, thriving through adaptation, or simply just surviving in this world.
I’m always thoroughly impressed by the eclectic range of literature and art we receive and am proud of the curated selections made by carte blanche’s section editors. I am eager for you to go on different reading journeys, contemplating the meaning of home by taking a tour of Yolanda Bonnell’s “12 Houses” where their “personality was shaped by constantly having to adapt to new surroundings,” or following the story from the point of view of an aged nursing home resident in “Mist” translated by Paul Curtis Daw and originally written by the late Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, and in the humorous relationship misadventures of the characters found in Neil Smith’s translation of “The Salad Spinner” by Philippe Chagnon.
There are works that focus on commonplace moments—such as observing an article of clothing in the poem “observation” by natalie hanna, watching a play of light in “Some Kind of Light” by Meryem Yildiz, and taking a trip to the Salvation Army and library in Madeline Ewanyshyn’s “Cursing Thursdays”—juxtaposing these everyday scenes with poignantly written reflections on illness, death, and loss.
Some pieces are set during the pandemic like in the poem “The Carousel” by Parker Baldin, and in Luca Seccafien’s “cell phones” featuring characters who are feeling lost and haunted by these uncertain days, and in the story “Digital Amalgam” by Hana Mason, which features a protagonist who hardly recognizes the person she was in the before times. The following lines from Mason’s story chillingly resonated with me, especially during these days which still remain uncertain for many of us: “It was the first false spring of winter, the third false spring of the apocalypse. Things were calming down, as they say. At least we were pretending.”
These are only several examples found in this “Adaptation” issue, so please do take your time, and browse through all our stellar contributors’ works. I hope you too find moments, lines, images, and stories in our magazine that resonate with you long after you’re finished viewing them.
There are a few extra items I would like to acknowledge. Firstly, a call for applications is currently underway for the 2022 carte blanche “Fresh Pages” Guest Editorship. Part of QWF’s “Fresh Pages” initiative, this temporary, part-time, paid opportunity is designed to help an aspiring literary artist who is Black, Indigenous, or a person of colour, develop skills in curating and editing a literary magazine.
The selected writer will work as a co-editor with me, the Editor in Chief, to help curate a special poetry section devoted to the writing of at-risk youth and young adults from the QWF’s Writers in the Community program for the Fall 2022 issue of carte blanche. The deadline for applications is June 30, 2022 and you can learn more detailed information about the program at the following link: https://qwf.org/2022-guest-editorship-carte-blanche/
Next, we are saying goodbye to our Photography Editor, Ruby Thélot. Thank you, Ruby, for your work with us and we wish you all the best on your future endeavours. Please keep a look out for a call for applications for a new Photography section editor to be posted in the coming weeks.
If you haven’t yet, please do check out our ongoing Alchemists Blog Series, curated by Erin Lindsay, which will feature seven writer/creators whose practices focus on collaboration, hybridity and interdisciplinarity. View the Alchemists posts that have already been published and stay tuned for the forthcoming interviews at the following link: https://carteblanchemagazine.com/carteblancheblog
Happy browsing and reading.
Here’s to the gentle breeze and the continued promise of warm, summer weather!
Greg Santos,
Editor in Chief
Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, June 2022