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A Wolf in the Head by Gloria Varley
Snow, deep over my boots, over my knees, a feeling it will swallow me up. My parents are dragging supplies on a sled but there's no room for me to...
One for Murder by Deborah Whelan
My screams ricochet off the corridor walls and I scramble out of Barnaby’s room. I press my forehead against the window and choke back the bile. I don’t have the...
The Death Position by Elaine Bander
“Empty your mind,” said Rami, her voice like golden honey. “Let your thoughts float away like butterflies. Don’t try to control them. Breathe in through your nose, out through your...
Hanging in the Shadows by Susan Cross
As the shutter snapped picture after picture of the interplay of light and shadow in the old oak forest on the night of the full moon, Shawna suddenly dropped her...
Decontamination by Jack Ruttan
Decon Tech William Gibbs blanched at the scene inside the tenement front door. A drug deal gone bad, both sides down shooting. The TV was playing some random sports channel. Snack...
Dye Her In Red by Heidi Joffe
At seven am, only a few students prowled around Ribauld University campus, and as one of them, Anita felt studiously determined to finish her project before the weekend. So far...
Ashes and Dust by Gina MacArthur
Simply beautiful.They were the first words -the only words - that sprang to mind as he looked down at her face. The curve of her nose was perfect. Her eyelashes -wispy...
Such a Change of Fortunes by Deb Loughead
Nothing more satisfying than a fresh block of wood. As promising as a brand new day, awaiting him in its raw form to be transformed, given another chance in a...
Tell Me Not To by Megan Cavon
I click the clothespin open and shut. It's cheaply made and the metal spring is coated with rust. Still, it opens and closes with little complaint. Such an innocuous object,...
Autumn Descent by Diane Wallace
The cornucopia overflowed with mini pumpkins, rose-hips and polished apples. It was flanked on either end of the harvest table by chunky candles and pewter vases filled with wild asters....
Stanley Park by Travis McLean
1983It was a Sunday night and Penelope Lau took the lever in her small palms and began to work at it, triggering the gates that held in the saltwater of...
What's the Frequency Kenneth? by Todd Brown
The investigating officer already knew a lot.For example, he knew the victim had mass, but no energy. On the subject of mass, the Detective knew that the victim was a...
A Man Falls, Burning by Susan Ellis
A man falls, burning. He falls lightly, carelessly, faster than the snowflakes falling with him, streaming smoke. No one sees him fall, with the exception of a dog sleeping curled...
Missing Clayton by Bev Irwin
I don’t like it here. It’s dark. It’s cold. Why doesn’t Mommy come and get me? She knows I don’t like the dark.“Your mommy has to find you,” the man...
Optimist Road by MJ Snyder
The last time I saw my old man, his knuckles were bloody, his face spattered with red freckles. Blood on his mouth too, thanks to my one good punch. His...
Copper and Diamonds by Joanne Coish
I was too late. Blood spread over the floors and ceiling like paint, but in a colour and odour that no one would deliberately choose. Copper, always copper along with...
Scarlet by Jennifer Sterne-Pownall
The knife’s blade flashed as she pulled it from her mother’s chest. It slid out much easier than the child had thought it would, and she fell back against the...
Crimes Seen by Kevin Thornton
“The Problem with blood is that it sticks to your skin,” said Jonathan, in between the screams of the electric saw. Leila glanced down at her naked body, and then...
'Til Death Us Do Part by Karen Janigan
Paula Baker angled her sailboard slight downwind to skirt a ghostly white mass floating in the evening sunset in the middle of Mahone Bay. A sunken tender, she thought, as...
Halloween Taxi Ride by Barbara Baker
"How much further?” I question the driver. “We should be there by now.” “Soon,” his leather finger pokes my thigh. He laughs. I jerk my legs over to the door; press my...
Home Sweet Home by Elisa McRae
Officer Galos pulled into the driveway. He didn’t bother putting the park brake on. The dispatcher had been wrong. His house hadn’t been broken into, as she’d reported. This wasn’t...
Breakup Tweet Challenge: And the winner is...
Our judge, Tabatha Southey, has made her final decision. The winning tweet in the inaugural Breakup Tweet Challenge is......
By Jennifer Goddard
The winner of our first-ever Namedropping Nonfiction Challenge is Jennifer Goddard of Montreal.Entry: Jacqueline swallowed her saliva so she wouldn’t get dehydrated. Perhaps not the best decision, cutting hay alone. The John...
Hunter-Gatherer by Crystal Chan
Entry from the winner of our Edible Nonfiction Challenge, Crystal Chan.Hunter-Gathererby Crystal Chan Montreal, QC I was hunter and gatherer in one. I snarled as I pushed the screwdriver in and...
By Erin Dym
It's hard to believe that you could fall in love over a dense, 400-calorie bagel, but this is a true story. It happened to me and my husband when we...
Yorkshire Puddings and Saran Wrap by Dawn Ruddick
I was reared on TV dinners, and Twinkies. Once, my mom even sent me to school with a cheese sandwich; featuring a Kraft Single, with the plastic wrapper left on. So...
By Tiffany Morris
I've known people who can cook. My roommate would whip up the best soups I've ever eaten, going from sink to chopping board to stove with hummingbird intensity. One soup...
Cold Curry by Phedra Deonarine
She sits on the rough concrete ground outside her backdoor. The ground is uneven with milkweed growing from the cracks. She bunches her faded purple dress around her knees. Her...
How I Learned to Cook by Yutaka Dirks
On my meandering journey into adulthood, newly untethered from the comforts of my suburban family home, I ate a lot of garbage. My roommates and I found free meals around...
Perfection in a Shell by Mary Jane Grant
"Make sure the white part is solid," I instructed my grandfather as he placed the egg onto the over-sized silver spoon and lowered it into the simmering water. "But the...
Picky by Jacqueline Valencia
My ten year old has autism spectrum disorder. He needs to feel in control of his surroundings and a regular routine helps him with that. As he's grown older, he's...
By Kyla Hanington
It was like sex. I mean, drunken sex. I mean, sex with a stranger one night, home from the bar. His home or your home? Whichever is closer. It was,...
George, Neil, Two Chickens and Me by Signe Langford
I gave up meat at 13 as an act of hero worship. George Harrison was vegetarian, so I would be too.Dinner that night was Mother's boiled chicken - something I...
Les Petits Mitrons by Mylène St-Pierre
"You will go into les Abbesses and find Rue LePic. Then, up the street towards Basilique Sacré Cœur. Find a pastry shop called Les Petits Mitrons. Purchase a savory and...
Don't You Like Our Food? by Jorlene Thiessen
The bowl makes a complete circuit, no takers this time around. "What's wrong? Don't you like our food?" It's a standing joke in our family now, but it originated with...
Desperation Scones by Penelope Dewar
During those few fine years of my childhood when we lived in a thatched cottage near one of the oldest inhabited spots in England, I developed a fondness for scones....
Braai by Veronica Sharpe
We call it a Braai. It's the equivalent to a barbecue. The cost of meat is ridiculous in Zimbabwe and therefore, it's a treat. Family gather in the front yard...
Brotherly Reflex by Nina Kabatoff
Nina, help me put the food on the table, my chubby mama yells to my bedroom.I come out wearing a yellow happy face t-shirt, a bothersome training bra and wide-legged...
Lost and Found by Eleanor Thomas
My partner and I strode through the saloon door side by side and paused just inside. The buzz of conversation died like air escaping from a balloon, and dozens of...
Baba's Holopchi by Jo-Ann Samo
Christmas was always an extraordinary time when Baba was alive. My mother, aunt and I would gather a day in advance at the crack of dawn to make holpchi (cabbage...
Risotto by Danielle Gregoire
When we were in love he made me risotto. I was twenty years old and this was the only risotto I knew. He made it with Texas long grain rice....
Mango by Paul Mitchell
The mangoes glistened like gold bullion in the African sun on this desolate stretch of no man's land in Ethiopia. Weary, parched, hungry, in the waning afternoon we had not...
The Pantry by Glynis Sharpe
The Pantry was much bigger once you stepped inside. The enchanting smell of garlic escaped every time the door opened. Food in our home was mostly homemade. Homemade sauces, cookies and...
Maggie Panko's first job
Like many teenaged Canadians, my first job was at McDonald's. Unlike the majority of those same Canadians, I got fired. Back then I wouldn't talk about it. McDonald's was the...
Minted Sacrificial Lamb by Deborah Whelan
It's our third date and Malcolm has invited me to dinner at his apartment in downtown St. John's. I smell mint, rosemary, thyme as he opens the door. Bonus, I...
A Street Meet Food Adventure in Bangkok by Allen McAvoy
It's just past dusk as we round the corner on one of the narrow side streets off Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road and frantically scan the neon-filled, bustling soi for street meat.My...
Girls Versus Janitor by Katrina Johnston
During the winter of 1963, I joined a gang of grade-four girls who plotted schoolyard domination. We laid our sieges upon the ice and snow of Mount View Elementary in...
Inside Out Under a Winter Sky by Chris Nelson
It seemed a reasonable decision at the time. Never having worn skates, joining the company hockey team would be a good way to learn to skate. I thought it odd they'd even...
Marco Polo by Robert Christopher
It was cold at the top of that mountain. They called it the top of the world. My last hunter died and because of that we never got paid. Worse...
Christmas in Japan by Rhonda Collis
In Sendai, Japan, close to the epicentre of the most recent earthquake, winter is very similar to our own in southern Canada with temperatures dipping below freezing and snowfalls that...
A December night in Quebec by Jamie Mason
A December night in Quebec, and not the pretty kind. Rust-eaten vehicles howl the ice-choked highway as salt smeared road-signs stand guard. The air hangs humid-cold, the kind that creeps...
Kid in a Candy Store by Ronald Kurki
Our "Over 50 Hockey Team" begins playing on Sunday night and I heard that there was adult skating at the arena this afternoon. Thinking that I should get a jump...
An Instant on Lake Temagami by Philip LiWei Chen
Let's stop here. I have never guided winter outdoor experiential education the way I am this time: more aware of the environment. Doesn't it sound like an obvious thing to do?...
Girls Versus Janitor by Katrina Johnston
During the winter of 1963, I joined a gang of grade-four girls who plotted schoolyard domination. We laid our sieges upon the ice and snow of Mount View Elementary in...
By Christine Selinger
Everyone has that one day they remember; that one winter day that really stands out amongst the rest. In late December of 2006 I had flown from my home in...
One Winter by Maria McCullagh
In Quebec City, snow begins to fall when the most stubborn leaves are still clinging to branches. Often as early as mid-November, when it is still officially autumn, we wake...
My Nonna by Carrie Hayes
Picture it...Montreal...1970. I was seven years old and already a seasoned Montreal 'winter' pro. Walking to school atop eight foot snow banks? Check. Spending days being literally snowed-in our house?...
Midnight Mass by Salvatore Difalco
St. Lawrence Church, Steel Town, 1972. A frosty Christmas Eve. I remember that night vividly, with mixed feelings. I sang in the St. Lawrence choir, down in Hamilton's rough and...
Out of the Grey by John Woolfrey
I've often heard people say: Montreal comes alive in summer. Maybe they like all the life outside in the streets, but when it gets to thirty degrees and ninety per...
The Pink Mohair Scarf by Deborah Whelan
Between snowflakes that smear the windows like globs of glue, I strain to see what they're doing. They don't know that I'm watching. A few minutes ago, I heard them...
Skating With Owls by Chris McMahen
In the winter of 1974, snowy owls arrived in Victoria. These brilliant white birds perched on the edges of the emerald green fairways of the Victoria Golf Club. Snowy owls...
Heating Costs by Lisa Woolman
The devil drives a Propane truck. He seemed so friendly in the spring, when he kindly recommended the fixed price program. So, quick as a dipping thermometer, I sold my soul to the propane...
In The Winter of 1939 by Linda Dowhaniuk
When my father was a twelve year old, it fell to him to go on a rescue mission in a blizzard. His aunt and her six month old baby were...
Ice Caves by Kathryn Zdybel
The way I remember it is that mom would tuck me and my sisters into our toques and snowpants and dad would lead us like a troop of ducks down...
When She Takes a Walk by Heather Cromarty
When my Mom's diagnosis finally came I went home as soon as I could. I arrived on Boxing Day. It was a relief to my Dad to have someone in...
C Word by Doug Koop
It seems I'm not the only one who doesn't want to be outside this morning judging by the reticent pink smudge on the Manitoba horizon. The CBC radio goofballs are...
Bay Area Freezers by Mark Paterson
On a cold, grey November day in 1982, a week after my eleventh birthday, I stood at the top of our walk and watched my family's stretch-wrapped belongings get loaded...
Take me Back by Brenda Brooks
I walked out on winter 14 years ago and never looked back. I wanted to run, but those late January Toronto streets were tricky and slick, so I bought a...
A True Winter Tale by Joanne Underwood
By the end of January, 1955, I'd lived in Bagotville, Quebec for nearly two months and so far all I knew of it was snow and cold. My Air Force...
By Stephanie Rideout (Marysvale, NL)
Lying under handmade quilts so heavy, I can't turn over against the weight. Snuggled in with my baby sister and the mattress so old we sink towards the middle in...
By Sheila Peters
December 23, 1980. I'm in the departure lounge at the Vancouver airport waiting for the flight to Smithers, 500 miles due north. I'm terrified. In my arms, wrapped in a...
By Catherine Lodge
Running frantically with coat, parcels, scarves flying in the wind, Jessie made it down to Union Station in a breathless state, just in time to catch the Ontario Northlander. Her...
Snow Piling Up by Erin Renwick
Winter, 1980: We are in Nelson BC, a town on a hill so steep and so constant that you can slip from top to bottom on sleds in winter. It...
By Shamima Khan
The snow was like sky sugar. When I stood out in it, arms outstretched, face upturned and staring into the immense whiteness, quietly letting snowflakes pour over my body, I...
By Heather Lynn Carr
We skated to school in the winter. We would don our skates at the front door, tie our shoes together and sling them over our shoulders, and carefully pick our...
"So What if I Waddle?" by Brianne Morgan
The winner of our Autobiography Challenge: Speaking out for the first time about the trials and tribulations of being raised by penguins, Brianne Morgan delivers a heart-wrenchingly sarcastic account of the...
Broken Wings & Second Chances By Shanyn Silinski
"It took me almost 20 years to realize I am not broken, that I can fly!", says author Shanyn Silinski on her new book. What was broken was healed, the...
DAMNED BAD BASTARD By Alexander McKinnon
While self-proclaimed bastards must live up to the image, McKinnon writes of a life born to it.Authentic, disturbing, unabashed... on the fringe of polite circles where bastard is an...
Cell Block C By Edward Colley
Born in fear and reared in isolation. Edward Colley's deeply moving and sometimes disturbing perspective on his childhood, invokes images of a muted battle fought by a five year-old against...
Is This My New Home? By Lorrie Beauchamp
Raised by peripatetic parents with a penchant for relocation, Lorrie Beauchamp embraced the concept and went on to prove that "nothing is forever". She moved 20 times, mastered several...
Walking Zombie Awakes By Deborah Elliott
Debbie finally awoke just before her fiftieth birthday; I mean she REALLY woke up. She decided it was time to dump those dead bodies she was carrying around in the...
Impolitical Correction By Isobel Raven
In the most significant publication of this, the fifth decade, Isobel Raven, Leader of the Laura Secord Party, reveals her participation as a member of the Conservative Party of...
Canadian Identity Crisis By Sylvia Olson
Sylvia was born by the Black Forest in Germany where she was raised on Grimm Fairy Tales. She moved from the country of uniformity to the land of diversity. Now...
Suspension With Pay By Leo McKay
A birth forty years early for reality TV. Talents too meagre for conventional achievement. Leo McKay reached middle age and began to re-evaluate everything, including career goals. Unwilling to coast...
Lust, Lies, and Lobbying By Geoff Stewart
Geoff Stewart is a young man chasing a feeling. Serial-dater turned womanizer, rambling grad student turned mercenary lobbyist - see how he finds his edge and the path of turmoil...
A Series Of Awkward Goodbyes By Adrian Budhram
Whether a sweaty handshake or a clumsy embrace, preparing for an awkward goodbye is daunting. Adrian Budhram lives in that moment of trepidation; from kindergarten expulsion triggered by macaroni art...
Interview With A Shallow Puddle By Susan Krupp
Somewhere between here and there I made up my mind to sit tight and abstain from drinking vodka in my coffee. Time sober was profoundly succinct. With hesitation I understood...
"Phil and the Phoenix" By Gordon Lambie
In the midst of tensions brought on by divorce, displacement, and unrequited love, fourteen year-old Gordon reinvents himself online in the form of Phil, the Burning Guy. Phil, perpetually aflame,...
The Extraordinary Ordinary Love Story By Nicole Korstanje
As a child she spent her days envisioning her future self. The image always the same. She would be married to a rich business man, living in a penthouse and...
True Story by Fiction Writer By Lee Kvern
Writer drops English 30 in High School. "Excessive novel reading, too much Shakespeare," says Lee Kvern. Does four years Remedial English in college. "She writes a helluva cover letter," quips...
"You Ate WHAT?!" By Donald B. Campbell
Traumatized by his childhood of mashed potatoes and oatmeal porridge, a young man sets off for some gutsy gastronomic globetrotting. Turtle soup. Snake soup. Dog soup. Anything but ****bell's soup. ...
'I Probably Don't Like You' by Stewart Reynolds
Raised by Scottish parents, Stewart Reynolds fought ridicule and battled to overcome the language barrier to become the delightfully uncelebrated artist he is today. Read this heartwarming and open autobiography...
"If I Had a Clawhammer" by Christine Lovelace
At the age of 40, when things started to sag and indigestion was a daily trial, Christine Lovelace decided that learning to play banjo would finally make her the hip...
"Self-Constrained Underwhelming Breeder Acrobatics" by Eric Rumble
People who can make babies do not necessarily know how. Drawing on years of lame courtship and futile attraction, Rumble explores the grey side of dating, revealing how to sidestep...
I: A Novel by Paul Marlowe
In any reasonable country, Paul Marlowe would be declared a national treasure. Not, perhaps, along the lines of the crown jewels, of course. More the sort of treasure that grandmother...
"They All Fall Down" by Mary E. McIntyre
In a freak storm, a centuries-old elm smashes her grandmother's cottage on Lake Scugog, killing a child. The fallout as told by ten-year old McIntyre relives the tragedy of 1957,...
"The Dyslexic Cartographer" by Joseph Sexsmith
Glen Sexsmith had the unfortunate occupation as a cartographer. Unfortunate, because of his dyslexia. He became known as The Dyslexic Cartographer. A world traveller, continually, frustratingly, going the wrong direction....
"To Scale a Rocky Chore" by Barbara Baker
Her short stories offer hot flash heat, the intrusiveness of pelvic exams, or the nonsensicality of new-age vacuum cleaners. Barbara Baker conjures up domestic chronicles as she scrambles peaks of...
"Twenty-Five to Life" by Hollis Sinker
In the throes of a quarter-life crisis, and turning more into her mother each day, Hollis Sinker seeks solace in hindsight's lessons and boxed wine. Take heed and read; you...
"Pit Mair In." By Stuart Mark
Stuart Mark dwelled on a diet of deep-fried intention and ketchup, until he was driven out of Scotland for hating football and using passive verbs. Head down into the Chinook...
"Where's the @#$% honey?" by Kyla Hanington
Clawing her way up the landslide of life, Kyla Hanington takes us on the humorous journey of raising two children - and herself - while having the attention span of...
"Anne ain't here" by Lisa Bulman Taylor
On an Island nostalgic for Green Gables, Lisa grew up wondering why life was not idyllic. Anne never tackled struggles of abuse, addiction and mental illness on her island. Digging...
"Not Older, Different" by Michael Hall
Time; It's difficult, when you don't believe something, to express yourself in terms of it. I can see things change, but I am not things. Although I am a collection...
"The Househusband" by Tom Bauer
He was a lousy husband, but he did good staying home with the kids. Was he thinking about gender reparation? Maybe penance. Then he opens a Montessori daycare. What was...
"Tea and Scrabble Anyone?" by Iris Nixon
She appreciates a formidable game of Scrabble. The mother of three lovely daughters she is proficient in Fairy tales and pony tails. A partially completed New York Times crossword lingers...
Northern Irregular by Lev Bratishenko
Pressganged into the Soviet National Hockey team at age 6, Lev Bratishenko defected to Canada at the first opportunity and wired his parents enough money to join him. So begins...
Banned from the Brownies By Evelyn White
In this side-splitting autobiography Salt Spring writer Evelyn C. White details her expulsion from the Brownies on the first day the troop met. The event triggers a revenge plot in...
Hips, Whips, and Battleships By Danielle McTaggart
Soon after my husband's enlistment I knew that tending home fires wouldn't be enough. My search for definition beyond "dependent" would bring me to the fringes of society's tapestry. But...