The city’s cold air rested itself in the cracks of the city. It filled the negative spaces between walls like a vapourous caulking, filling mailboxes and surging north and south at the Barrington and Spring Garden intersection. The painful, palpable chill that smacked against your face cloaked the downtown down-and-outers that piled on top of […]
Literary
Half-heard, chapter 12
Dougie’s party wheeled onward through pinatas, play-fights, balloon animals, duck-duck-goose, apple-bobbing, games of tag, two dozen youngsters unleashing enervated laughter through heaves and heavy coughs while being chased around a home where only Dougie knew all the labyrinthine twists and turns, through parents’ legs underneath the long dining room table. Fro-yo was dispensed and dished […]
Half-heard, chapter 11
ACT II: And for that little guy, that little kid who heard the rest of the pre-meeting from the vents in the dust-laden and dampened basement, he heard A. Welnot sniffling to himself and mumbling maniacally while everyone else was lost during his time there by the bathroom door. He sat down by himself most […]
Half-heard, chapter 10
In the living room they still sat. Their eyes near-watering as the wretched stench of the downstairs bathroom wafted in. The Northwood Terrace roommate meeting was actually more of a precursor to what Welnot’s hoped-for actual meeting would be: a poll to see what day was best for everyone to meet. Welnot was elated and […]
Half-heard, chapter 9
Welnot could see right through Alex’s snooty, high-falutin academic techno-babble and self-satisfaction; all his prefixed-isms and suffixed terms and endless references to other books there’s no way he finished. Right there in that room, he knew what was going on. He knew Alex was trying to pull one over on everyone, fool them all into […]
Hot, Wet, and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk About Sex
Kaleigh Trace is a disabled, queer, sex educator who bares it all in Hot, Wet, & Shaking: How I Learned to Talk About Sex.Trace works at Venus Envy and writes the blog The Fucking Facts (thefuckingfacts.com). Her blogging prowess led her to a book deal and eventually to this 128-page paperback. Trace offers something that’s […]
Half-heard, chapter 8
Welnot called Sarah, Alex and Trevor into the room for the meeting w/r/t matters of household concern e.g. the toilet bowl shit, Trevor walking in mumbling, “Isn’t he the one who hasn’t let anyone flush the toilet yet?” Sarah Toile walking in, this being her first time being seen around the house since the last […]
Irving vs Irving: A Q&A with Jacques Poitras
[Image-1] Whatever you think you know about the Irvings, you’re going to learn more in Irving vs Irving. The new book by veteran reporter Jacques Poitras looks into the history of Canada’s third wealthiest family, examining untold stories as the New Brunswick tycoons monopolize print media, fleece the government and battle against their own kin. […]
Half-heard, chapter 7
On the television a local anchor on a low-quality camera was fumbling through a piece. He was clumsy, and was hired because he was clumsy. That made viewers tune in to the down-home pieces about remote control boat races, demolition derbies and the canine that joined the Citadel High wrestling team. Tonight he was participating […]
Literary awards season
the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia presents both The East Coast Literary Awards and the Atlantic Writing Competition, each geared towards celebrating local talent and exceptional reads. The East Coast Literary Awards jurors sifted through 64 submitted titles from all over the Atlantic provinces to come up with this tight little list of nine. Winners […]
El Jones, poetry and power
El Jones stands in front of a banner that reads Black Lives Matter. Her left hand is raised in a fist. Her right holds a mic into which she chants: Malcolm, Huey, Angela, Assata Dead, prison, exile, murdered Revolution, protest, programs, marches Can you live up to what they started? What do you feel in […]
Who to see at Word on the Street
Though it’s only one day long, the Word on the Street Festival packs in the special guests and artfully highlights local talent. Ending with the East Coast Literary Awards, this is an unofficial literary week in Halifax. Our powerful poet laureate El Jones releases her debut book Thursday night, and reads at WOTS on Sunday. […]

