Paul Vermeersch

from the editor: we dared not speak of the hope we felt

Dear Reader,

When we released the first issue of The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing one year ago, while the Covid-19 pandemic raged on, we dared not speak of the hope we felt that our second issue would be published without that same spectre hanging over it. But here we are—with the summer of ’22 in sight and the pandemic still raging, and with our governments and institutions discovering too late the human cost of lifting public health protections too soon—with our second issue. Despite these unfortunate circumstances, we are grateful to celebrate the release of this new publication along with the work of all the talented writers within it. Life, as the song reminds us, goes on.

Art, too.

In this issue, The Ampersand Review goes on with the kind of quality writing we hope readers will come to expect from us. Staying true to our motto “reading for pleasure, writing for everyone,” we offer a selection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from—and for—a variety of perspectives and aesthetics. We want to offer a magazine of consistent quality for a variety of readers without letting that consistency become a rut. We have more fiction in this issue than we had in our first, thanks to short stories by Quinn Mason, Stuart Ross, and Rabindranath Maharaj.

Our poetry section marks the return of Khashayar Mohammadi, who reviewed Lindsay B-e’s breakout collection The Cyborg Anthology in our first issue. Mohammadi is joined by the current poet laureate of Mississauga Aymomide Bayowa, mutli-genre writer Kate Cayley, and GG-winner (and at the time of this writing, Griffin Prize finalist) Tolu Oloruntoba. All these poems explore cultural spaces, whether intertextually or socio-politically, and the many ways the voice of a poem can render, or engage with, those spaces. Poets Triny Finlay and Chris Banks, for example, turn pop culture inward, looking past the glitz to see it as a personal, intimate space, while poets Jessica Bebenek and Annick MacAskill do what lyric poems have always done best—blur the lines between author and speaker, between the personal and the plural—and make it new.

Poetry and fiction are ancient forms of storytelling, but one of the latest forms of storytelling is the podcast. Our feature interview in this issue brings together Dina Del Bucchia and Jen Sookfong Lee, hosts of Can’t Lit, which bills itself as “a podcast on all things Canadian and Literature.” That description doesn’t quite capture the vibe of their show or the energy the hosts bring to it. They are, in equal measure, animated, enthusiastic, and irreverent. The real selling point of Can’t Lit, however, is how they take an academic subject out of the classroom and make it entertaining. I believe our interview with Del Bucchia and Lee captures that spirit.

Rounding out the magazine, we have a suite of micro-profiles of Canadian small presses (a feature we plan to bring back from time to time) and book reviews, which we are committed to publishing in every issue. All of this might tell you something about what’s in the magazine, but it says very little about what the magazine is: a collection—a storehouse—of writing. But all good collections are more than the sum of their parts. A magazine is not only made by the writers who contribute to it, but also by the staff who work on it, and I wish to acknowledge them, as well.

With that in mind, I want to put down a few words about our departing managing editor Robyn Read. She’s the one who first breathed life into this magazine, bringing with her a wealth of publishing experience, a sharp eye for talent, and a particular passion for non-fiction, all of which helped to shape our first issue, laying the foundation for all issues yet to come. Behind the scenes, her formidable editorial talents were matched by her organizational wizardry and commitment to mentoring our student interns who are hired directly from the Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan. There simply would not—could not—be an Ampersand Review without Robyn Read. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked closely with her on building this publication from scratch and to have learned so much from a valued colleague and friend. Robyn is still a member of Sheridan’s Creative Writing & Publishing faculty, and we look forward to both her editorial and advisory contributions in the issues and years to come.

I also want to thank Fawn Parker who has been our managing editor throughout the production cycle for this issue. Managing editors are the glue that holds any publishing endeavour together, and Fawn has been no exception. An accomplished writer and editor, she is the author of three books—Set-Point, Dumb-Show, and What We Both Know—and prior to joining The Ampersand Review, her name appeared on the mastheads of The Puritan, Vallum, and BAD NUDES Magazine. In this issue, Fawn took the lead on putting our non-fiction features and book reviews together, as well as offering vital assistance with the acquisition of poetry and fiction. This issue is imbued with her talents and her commitment to both craft and community. It has been my genuine privilege to work with her.

And finally, a thank you to our interns Suha Tariq and Meaghan Flokstra. The essence of an internship is to learn by doing, and it might be too easy to focus on their learning and not their doing, but they have done a lot, and their work has real value, and I hope that is reflected in this issue, as well.

I began this note by saying “we dared not speak of the hope we felt,” and that doesn’t feel right any longer. I think rather we dare not fail to speak of our hope: to imagine and write and publish and lift up an array of brilliant voices. We will do our best.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,

Paul Vermeersch

Editor-in-Chief

April 2022