From Our Editors

The fall may be getting a little long in the tooth, but here we are at last, very happy to bring you our fall 2018 issue.

It’s no secret that independent publications like ours struggle financially. It has been solely through the generosity of our community of readers here in Hamilton and beyond who donate to our fundraisers and attend our events that we have made it to our fifth issue, able to pay all of our contributors for their work. We are so grateful to you all.

And then, in September, the wonderful news arrived that we were receiving a grant from the Ontario Arts Council. Thank you, OAC! This news came at the perfect time, as we were starting to wonder how much longer we could sustain HRB, let alone grow it. Being awarded the financial resources to expand our coverage, pay more contributors, further develop our website, and much more, we have big plans for spring 2019. Stay tuned for more on that.

In the meantime, we offer a small but stellar collection of reviews and interviews in our current issue. We’re delighted to provide a home for Catherine Graham’s interviews with the 2018 Canadian and international Griffin Poetry Prize winners, Billy-Ray Belcourt and Susan Howe, as well as for Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail’s conversation with 2018 Governor General’s award-winning writer, Darrel J. McLeod. Shazia Hafiz Ramji reviews the iconic Dionne Brand’s Theory, and Darrell Doxtdator considers Hamilton’s own John Terpstra’s latest, Daylighting Chedoke. We’re also fortunate to have a timely and fascinating essay from Rabindranath Maharaj, author of the recent Adjacentland.

Our issue would of course not be complete without featuring the artwork of a Hamilton-based artist, and this one is graced by five stunning images from multimedia artist and “visual alchemist,” Stylo Starr.

We’ll be back in the spring with more literary goodness to share. Happy reading, all!