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Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Issue 224

The Malahat Review 224 issue cover image

Established in 1967, The Malahat Review is a quarterly literary magazine dedicated to publishing the best poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by Canadian and international writers. Their current fall issue #224 showcases cover art by Cammie Staros, Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction winner Eleanor Fuller, and new work by Odette Auger, Chee Brossy, Alicia Gee, Karine Hack, Warren Heiti, Mark Anthony Jarman, Joseph Kidney, Y. S. Lee, Winshen Liu, Sadie McCarney, Matt Robinson, Kawai Shen, Sun Tzu-Ping (translated by Nicholas Wong), Rhea Tregebov, and Olivia Wenzel (translated by Sylvia Franke). Visit their website for more info and to sign up for their email list to receive their monthly newsletter with author interviews, contest entry deals, info on upcoming issues, and more.

Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines and our Big List of Literary Magazines and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Issue 222

The Malahat Review Issue 222 Spring 2023 cover image

The Malahat Review, established in 1967, is among Canada’s leading literary journals. Published quarterly, it features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction. The latest issue, Spring 2023 #222, features Open Season Awards winners Gloria Blizzard (cnf), Caroline Harper New (poetry), and Deepa Rajagopalan (fiction); cover art by SGidGang.xaal / Shoshannah Greene; poetry by Jenna Lyn Albert, Kayla Czaga, Sue Goyette, Maggie Helwig, Kate Kennedy, D. A. Lockhart, Pauline Peters, Cale Plett, C. Rafuse, and Shane Rhodes; fiction by Katherine Abbass, Mehr-Afarin Kohan, Rebecca Mangra, and Paul Ruban (translated by Neil Smith); creative nonfiction by Paul Dhillon and S. I. Hassan; and reviews of new books by Margaret Atwood, Manahil Bandukwala, Dionne Brand, Kevin Marc Fournier, Susan Glickman, Tomson Highway, Rhona McAdam, Paul Sunga, Délani Valin, and Joshua Whitehead.

Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Issue 220

The Malahat Review print literary magazine Issue 220 cover image

The Malahat Review Issue 220 features the winner of their Far Horizons Award for Poetry, “Inner Child Work” by Meryem Yildiz, as well as poetry by Chelsea Coupal, Joel Harris, Ana Rodriguez Machado, Richard Sanger, Susan Glickman, Rachel Crummey, Ben Gallagher, Shauna Andrews, Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang, A. Light Zachary, Manahil Bandukwala, Tasos Leivaditis, N. N. Trakakis, Annick MacAskill, Carl Watts, Camille Lendor, Jérémi Doucet, Erin Conway-Smith, Daniel W. K. Lee; fiction by Rachel Lachmansingh, Susan Sanford Blades, Zilla Jones, Shazia Hafiz Ramji; and creative nonfiction by Gabriel Cholette, Brian O’Neill, and Monica Wang. Readers can find an online interview with Shazia Hafiz Ramji about her story, “Selvon in Calgary.”

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Summer 2022

The Malahat Review print literary magazine Summer 2022 issue cover image

Eking out the final days of summer, there’s still time to enjoy The Malahat Review‘s newest issue, featuring Novella Prize winner Jenny Ferguson’s “Missing,” along with Poetry by Amy M. Alvarez, Jes Battis, Heather Birrell, Rose Henbest, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Michael Kenyon, Louie Leyson, Lauren Marshall, Jordan Mounteer, Heo Nanseolheon and Lee Okbong (both translated by Suphil Lee Park), K. R. Segriff, and Kenneth Tanemura; Fiction by Martha Nell Cooley; Creative nonfiction by Daniel Allen Cox and Jen Hirt; and Reviews of books by Lee Gowan, Steven Heighton, Tomson Highway, Helen Humphreys, Sarah Mintz, Leah Ranada, and Diane Tucker, as well as three anthologies AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets, Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Voices on the Future, and Best Canadian Poetry 2021. Cover art by Jinny Yu.

Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Issue 218

The Malahat Review Issue 218 literary magazine cover image

The newest issue of The Malahat Review features their Open Season Award Winners, which includes both their works as well as an interview with each Kaitlin Debicki (poetry), Sara Mang (fiction), and Bahar Orang (nonfiction) – all winning works and interviews can be read online. The rest of the issue is chock full of great works, with Poetry by Ronna Bloom, Laura Cok, Francesca Schulz-Bianco, Carolyn Smart, Joan Rivard (online and includes an interview), T. Liem, Katherine Alexandra Harvey, Jamie Evan Kitts, Bill Howell, Aaron Tucker, Steve Noyes, Eric Wang, Domenica Martinello, Judith Taylor; Fiction by Suzannah Windsor, Jeff Noh, Jaime Burnet; and Creative Nonfiction by Kate Gies, Shauna Andrews, Ellise Ramos (online and includes an interview), and Ian Clay Sewall. Cover art by Emily Hermant.

2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction Winner

Congratulations to Ben Lof, winner of The Malahat Review‘s 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. Lof won with his piece “Naked States.”

The story begins:

In January, Frank said to April, No more alcohol. This was not a New Year’s resolution. The vermouth pancakes tasted only of vermouth.

April said, Who the heck is named “Frank” anymore? I mean, what is this, the 1960s?

Frank said, That’s the booze talking, that kind of meanness. You used to be witty.

Oh? said April. I’m still witty, pal. Got buckets and buckets of wit.

So they dropped alcohol.

Lof was also interviewed for this issue, and you can check out the interview on The Malahat Review‘s website.

The Malahat Review – Autumn 2021

The Autumn 2021 issue is here featuring the winner of our 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. Poetry by Y. S. Lee, Laurie D. Graham, Yuan Changming, Sebastien Wen, Allison LaSorda, Danielle Hubbard, Elisabeth Gill, Rozina Jessa, Sue J. Levon, and morej, as well as fiction by Jenny Ferguson, Sara Mang, and Cassidy McFadzean. Find more contributors at The Malahat Review website.

The Malahat Review’s 2021 Open Season Awards Winners

The winners of the 2021 Open Season Awards are in the Spring 2021 issue of The Malahat Review. This year’s judges were Rebecca Salazar for poetry, Philip Huynh for fiction, and Lishai Peel for creative nonfiction.

Fiction
“Crossing” by Zilla Jones

Creative Nonfiction
“Mondegreen Girls” by Tanis MacDonald

Poetry
“Merchant Vessels” by Matthew Hollet

Check in with The Malahat Review in August when this contest opens for submissions again.

Brobby’s Double Jeopardy

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

The Winter 2020 issue of The Malahat Review opens with the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke Prize for Creative Nonfiction: “On Playing Double Jeopardy!” by Christina Brobby. This piece works through the different money categories in a game of Jeopardy all on the theme of photographic terms. Like the show, Brobby is given the answer and she responds with the appropriate question as she connects the term to her life.

I enjoyed the set-up of this piece. It flows seamlessly, Brobby always taking care to weave the photographic terms into the moments of her life. She examines how she presents as her race, in her adoptive family, as a wife, a partner, a mother. When she gives the answer of “What is a filter?” she ends the section turning it back inward: “Be more or less vibrant, act more coolly, like when the man after your husband said you were too emotional and that’ s not what he was signing up for. You donned your neutral-density filter . . . ”

This piece is a great opener for the issue, and well-deserved of taking home the Constance Rooke Prize. It immediately caught my eye and drew me in with its unique format, something greatly appreciated in the these days of shortened attention spans.

Malahat Review Extends Deadline of Long Poem Prize

The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize extension bannerLiterary magazine The Malahat Review has announced they have extended the deadline for its biennial Long Poem Prize. If you missed yesterday’s deadline, you’re in luck! There is still time to submit. The new deadline is February 5 at 11:59 PM PST.

The Long Poem Prize awards two cash prizes of $1,250 CAD and is open to both Canadian and international writers across the globe. The two winning poems will appear in the the Summer 2021 issue. This year’s judges are Meredith Quartermain, Armand Garnet Ruffo, and John Elizabeth Stintzi.

This year, in addition to the cash prizes and publication, The Malahat Review is giving away poetry books to one lucky contest entrant. All submissions to the contest are entered into this giveaway. Books being given away are Salt and Ashes by Adrienne Drobnies, Re-Origin of Species by Alessandra Naccarato, Visual Inspection by Matt Rader, and Pockets by Stuart Ross.

What’s in a Name?

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

Not to be missed in Issue 212 of The Malahat Review: “It’s Here All the Beauty I Told You About” by Shane Rhodes.

This piece is an excerpt from a manuscript in progress. In it, Rhodes explores Shane, a 1949 Western pulp novel by Jack Schaefer; the origins of given names; and the ways in which Western novels continue to “obscure and rewrite the history of North American colonization and settlement and the racism that fuels them.”

This excerpt combines written work, cut-outs of overlapping book pages, and handwriting. Rhodes collects copies of Shane and is drawn to “the most abused copies” with writing in the margins, underlined words, browning pages, and this excerpt adopts this feeling of a much-used book. Each page offers something new and arrests the eye, a real treat to read through.

Readers can get an idea of Rhodes’s style by checking out recently published work from the same manuscript in progress in periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics.

The Malahat Review – Fall 2020

The Autumn 2020 issue features the winner of the 2020 Far Horizons Award for Poetry: A.R. Kung with “Flight.” Also in the issue, find poetry by Karen Lee, Shane Rhodes, Patrick Phoebe Wang, and more; fiction by Shoilee Khan, Francine Cunningham, and John Elizabeth Stintzi; and creative nonfiction by Michelle Poirier Brown, Kathy Mak, and Erin Soros. Plus, a hearty selection of book reviews.

The Malahat Review Novella Prize – 2020 Winner

The Malahat Review hosts a Novella Prize biennially. The 2020 winner opens the Summer 2020 issue. Judges Samantha Jade Macpherson and Naben Ruthnum selected “Yentas” by Rebecca Păpucaru.

Of “Yentas,” the judges said: “‘Yentas’ is a nostalgia-free portrait of girlhood lived among the Jewish communities of 1980s Montreal. The novella’s evocation of the cruelties and kindnesses of teenage friendship, territorialism, and enmity is built in prose as funny as it is precise. Rebecca Păpucaru’s treatment of culture, ethnicity, and religion as complex structures informing protagonist Karen’s family and social life achieves impressive depth and nuance. Through Karen’s eyes we are totally immersed in a rich and bubbling teenaged world. Visceral and enchanting, a truly fantastic read!”

At The Malahat Review‘s website, readers can check out an interview with the winning author.

The Malahat Review – Summer 2020

This issue of The Malahat Review features the 2020 Novella-Prize-winning “Yentas” by Rebecca Păpucaru, Daniel Allen Cox’s “The Glow of Electrum,” Mike Alexander’s “An Afternoon Gentleman,” Matthew Hollett’s “I’m Sorry, I Have to Ask You to Leave,” Ronna Bloom’s “Legend of Saint Ursula,” Alamgir Hashmi’s “Anywhere, 2019,” and Kate Felix’s “Beneath the Pond.” Also in this issue: Sarah Tolmie, Xaiver Campbell, Sarah Venart, Theressa Slind, Chris Banks, Daniel Sarah Karasik, Sarah Lord, Ron Riekki, Paul Vermeersch, and Alisha Dukelow. Plus, a selection of book reviews, and cover art by Sharona Franklin: “Mycoplasma.”

Find New Favorites in The Malahat Review

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The cover of the latest issue of The Malahat Review is a calming scene: a full moon framed by powerlines over a pastel sky. It invites readers to pick it up and open it to discover what’s inside. I had found two new favorites in the pages: “Nice Girl” by Hollie Adams and “A High Frequency Words List” by Matthew Gwathmey.

In “Nice Girl,” Adams’s speaker likens herself to a mall who would “never automatically / open the doors even though / there’d be a sign saying / Automatic Doors.” She admits she’d keep them locked because she’s “evil / even though in real life / I’m always doing nice things.” This poem is a fun exploration of one’s inner self and the intentions behind actions. There’s a sense of humor in this piece even as it leads to introspection, an enjoyable aspect.

Gwathmey’s poem is in four sections, each one a list of words picked from the Fry and the Dolch sight word lists, used in children’s vocabulary development. This piece is just four paragraphs listing off words, a cool form of recycling.

There is plenty more poetry and prose to find inside this issue of The Malahat Review. Grab a copy to find your own favorites.

2019 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize Winner

The Malahat Review - Winter 2019The Malahat Review annually hosts the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize. The editors consider submissions of “a genre that embraces, but is not limited to, the personal essay, memoir, narrative nonfiction, social commentary, travel writing, historical accounts, and biography, all enhanced by such elements as description, dramatic scenes, dialogue, and characterization.” The Winter 2019 issue features the 2019 winner, chosen by Judge Yasuko Thanh: “Bat Reign” by Jeanette Lynes.

In an interview, Thanh said she was looking for “A story with a heartbeat, the ring of truth; to be surprised on every page with turn of phrase, or metaphor, or image so apt it’s breathtaking. Insight. A climactic “punchline” in the sense that its timing is perfectly paced and creates a resolution as inevitable as unexpected.”

Pick up a copy of the Winter 2019 issue of The Malahat Review to see how Lynes meets these expectations with “Bat Reign,” and check back in May of this year for details on the 2020 prize.

The Malahat Review – Winter 2019

The Malahat Review - Winter 2019

The Winter 2019 issue of The Malahat Review features 2019 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize winner Jeanette Lynes. Also included: Carolyn Nakagawa, Julia Brush, Angélique Lalonde, Franco Cortese, Kurt Marti, Patricia Young, Sherine Elbanhawy, Suphil Lee Park, Emeka Patrick Nome, Hasan Alizadeh, Conor Kerr, Joel Robert Ferguson, Melanie Boyd, Bernadette White, Dominique Béchard, Jon Gingerich, Tatiana Oroño, Robert Hilles, Kulbir Saran, Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang, Dawn Lo, and Sehrish Ranjha. Cover art by Sandra de Groot.