The Fiddlehead :: NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines

The Fiddlehead

Publisher’s description: The Fiddlehead, published 4 times a year, is Atlantic Canada's international literary journal. Since 1945 it has surprised and delighted readers in Canada and across the world with its stories, poems, book reviews, and occasional essays. Many now well-known writers, such as Anne Compton, Alistair MacLeod, and Tom Wayman, found an early and enthusiastic welcome in The Fiddlehead. In alternating years the summer issue is devoted entirely to either poetry or fiction; these special, extended issues measure the pulse of literary writing. As well The Fiddlehead holds an annual writing contest in two categories, short fiction and poetry. The contest closes December 1st and the winning entries are published in the spring issue. "The Fiddlehead, a mix of common sense and magic . . . the magazine that has itself sustained so many writers by lending both mouth and ear," says Don McKay, the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize Canadian winner.

Recent issues:

The winter 2012 issue, The Fiddlehead’s 250th, includes fiction, poems, and creative non-fiction from writers such as Darren Bifford, Lynn Davies, Norman Dubie, Jami Macarty, Christopher Meades, Ben Miller, Airica Parker, Gregory Phipps, and Jill Sexsmith along with book reviews. The cover art is from Ann Balch’s watercolour, “Queen.” Since the winter of 1945 The Fiddlehead, named after that “small plant that grows in the Saint John River valley in the spring and which is said to be symbolic of the sun,” has flourished, remaining ever green and ever vital. A warming thought indeed during this snowy season.

It’s autumn and The Fiddlehead is gently falling into eager readers’ hands everywhere. Found within the leaves of this issue (249, Autumn 2011) are a bag full of stories, poems and reviews including new works from Bruce Bond, Dede Crane, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Patty Houston, Jeanette Lynes, Alberto Ríos, and Ricardo Sternberg among others. The cover artwork showcases the brilliant autumnal reds of Anna Cameron’s “Untitled IX.” So warm up some apple cider, curl up in a cozy chair, and leaf through your copy of 249.

It’s summer time and the living is easy, especially if you have a copy of The Fiddlehead’s all-fiction summer issue (248)! Kick off your sandals, and lean back in your hammock, lounge chair, or canoe and enjoy these stories and reviews by Elisabeth Harvor, Alice Petersen, J.M. Villaverde, Forrest Orser, Andrew Smith, Gregory Foran and more.