From Our Editors, Spring 2019

It’s amazing what a little funding will do. Last year we were fortunate to receive a grant from the Ontario Arts Council that allowed us to expand our coverage, pay more contributors, and establish both our poetry reading series, Poets & Pints, and our panel series, HRB Presents. (Speaking of which, be sure to join us for our first instalment, Radical Words: The Role of the Writer in Polarizing Times on Tuesday June 18, 7 p.m. at The Staircase Theatre in Hamilton. We have an amazing group of panellists including Tamara Faith Berger, Amanda Leduc, Pasha Malla, and Phoebe Wang. And we’re delighted to have professor and poet Eugenia Zuroski as our moderator for the evening. Visit our site for ticket information.)

If you’ve visited our site before, you might notice that it’s looking a little different. With the money we received from the OAC, we were also able to have our site completely redesigned and updated. We hope you like what you see.

We have a truly special spring issue in store for you. Here are just a few of the pieces we’re excited to share: Shazia Hafiz Ramji reviews Téa Mutonji’s first book, Shut Up, You’re Pretty; Canisia Lubrin reviews Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Cluster and Dina Del Bucchia’s It’s a Big Deal!; Casey Plett reviews Joshua Ferguson’s Me, Myself, They; and Naben Ruthnum reviews Helen Marshall’s The Migration. We also have two powerful and beautiful essays from Elizabeth Ruth and Lori Sebastianutti. And of course we have interviews. Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer interviews our own senior editor Sally Cooper about her new novel, and Danila Botha talks to Alix Ohlin about hers. Featured artist Peter Michael Wilson’s stunning photography rounds out and beautifully complements our issue’s content.

Part of our expanded coverage this year is the launch of our podcast, Work in Progress. This is an exciting new aspect of HRB, and the hard work of our senior editor Krista Foss. Here with our spring issue we are releasing episode two featuring Naben Ruthnum reading from and discussing his works in progress. Be sure to tune in!

As ever, we are so thankful to all our contributors whose insightful and inspired work makes it a joy to produce this publication. Thank you as well to the Ontario Arts Council. And huge thanks go out to our community of readers, too, without whom we would not have a reason to do this work. Enjoy the summer and happy reading!