Paul Vermeersch

from the editor: we could make this a habit

Dear Reader,

Arriving at our third issue of The Ampersand Review, it’s starting to feel like we could make this a habit. In many ways, though, things at our little magazine are still very much finding their way. For example, with our third issue we bid farewell to our outgoing managing editor Fawn Parker, who is pursuing exciting new literary and scholarly opportunities, and we congratulate Fawn on seeing her novel What We Both Know make the long-list for the 2022 Giller Prize.
At the same time, we welcome our new managing editor, Tali Voron, who brings a wealth of small-press publishing experience, both with Coach House Books and her own imprint, The Soap Box Press, to our magazine. Tali is overseeing new ways to grow The Ampersand Review and has already begun making the necessary preparations for us to transition from an annual publication to a semi-annual in the next year. More exciting announcements will be coming soon, so be sure to visit our website and sign up for our mailing list when you have the chance.
Another exciting development at our magazine concerns our mascot. In the last two issues you may have noticed a cockatoo wearing eyeglasses gracing some of our pages. We ran a small campaign on social media in the fall of 2022 to find this little fellow a name, and we have to thank Nicole Purdue, an alumnus of Sheridan’s Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing, for providing it. Henceforth our bird shall be called Cornelius the Cockatoo. I’m not certain what inspired Nicole to suggest the name, but I like that it reminds me of the great multi-instrumentalist Cornelius Bumpus, who I remember from his stint as a sideman with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan as well as his brief but beautiful solo output, and also of Dr. Cornelius, the chimpanzee archaeologist portrayed by Roddy McDowall in the original Planet of the Apes film.
This issue of The Ampersand Review is pleased to feature an interview with Sheridan’s current writer-in-residence, Naben Ruthnum, alongside the usual selection of excellent poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and book reviews that readers have come to expect in our pages. And if this is your first time reading our little magazine, all of us here—including Cornelius—hope you’ll be back for more in the issues to come.

The warmest of winter wishes,

Paul Vermeersch
January, 2023

Paul Vermeersch is the editor-in-chief of The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing