Community Updates
KELSEY GILCHRIST’S DRIVER’S TEST FEATURED IN BEST CANADIAN SERIES 2026
The Ampersand Review Issue No. 6 contributor Kelsey Gilchrist has been selected as a Best Canadian Essay in Biblioasis’ Best Canadian Series 2026 anthology!
From Biblioasis,
“Every spring comes with the job of preparing our annual Best Canadian Series anthologies. The hardest part is done throughout the previous year by our guest editors, who have the momentous task of reading and choosing, out of hundreds, the essays, poems, and stories that will be featured—what they consider to be the best works of English-language Canadian literature. For my part, I’m pleased to have the privilege of informing our selected contributors of their inclusion—it’s one of my favourite things about working on this series, letting them know that their writing has been seen and appreciated in this way.
Today, we’re announcing the seventy-six contributors who have been selected for the 2026 editions, publishing November 18, 2025. These wonderful writers come from all across Canada, from Vancouver to St. John’s; are at various levels of their careers, from established names to rising stars; and have appeared in a wide range of print and online journals, magazines, and newspapers, all credited below.
A wholehearted congratulations to all of them for their work.”
Congratulations to Kelsey Gilchrist for her selection!
You can find the link for the Best Canadian Series 2026 below.
double CHAPBOOK LAUNCH! - DAmian tarnopolsky “a friend to words" and jane munro’s “straights and narrows”
Espresso and Found Object are doing a joint launch of Damian Tarnopolsky's short story chapbook, "A Friend of Words" and Jane Munro's poetry chapbook, "Straights and Narrows." Damian is the author of two acclaimed collections of stories and a novel. Griffin Prize winner Jane Munro is the author of many poetry collections and a memoir.
Come out and support our extended literary community!
Free to enter, limited seating available
MYTH POETRY BOOK LAUNCH - TERESE MASON PIERRE
Join Terese Mason Pierre for the launch of Myth, her debut poetry collection! Myth is “a little tropical, a little lyrical, a little speculative, a little sad ... something for everyone!” Featuring guest singer Toria Liao, and poets Faith Arkorful, Farah Ghafoor, and Natasha Ramoutar (who is also hosting!) They will be selling copies at the event, as well as hosting a signing after the performances.
Register at the link below!
Code Noir (Knopf Canada/Soft Skull Press) - canisia lubrin
longlisted for carol shields prize for fiction
The Ampersand Review’s Issue No. 6 featured author Canisia Lubrin has been long-listed for the $50,000 Carol Shield’s prize for Fiction for her debut work Code Noir!
From their website: “Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction is that rare work of art—a brilliant, startlingly original book that combines immense literary and political force. Its structure is deceptively simple: it departs from the infamous real-life “Code Noir,” a set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine linked fictions—vivid, unforgettable, multi-layered fragments filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past.
Ranging in style from contemporary realism to dystopia, from futuristic fantasy to historical fiction, this inventive, shape-shifting braid of stories exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. This is a timely, daring, virtuosic book by a young literary star. The stories are accompanied by black-and-white drawings—one at the start of each fiction—by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.”
You can find our conversation with Canisia in Issue No. 6 here:
Devouring Tomorrow (dundurn press)
March 25th, 2025
Hello, readers! Looking for your next speculative fiction read? Dundurn Press has a book worth taking a bite out of! The gripping anthology, Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food, edited by A.G. Pasquella and Jeff Dupuis, is full of work from many amazing Ampersand contributors, including Gary Barwin, Dina Del Bucchia, Jacqueline Valencia, and A.G.A. Wilmot.
“Our lives, our culture, our community all start with and revolve around food and eating. Sharing meals with family and friends has been a hallmark of human society from our earliest beginnings. But we are entering an era of unprecedented change. Climate, technology, the global spread of crop diseases, droughts, and the loss of pollinators threaten to change not only how much food we eat, but what we eat and how we eat it.”
You can find Devouring Tomorrow on Dundurn Press’ website, linked here:
DEAD WRITERS LAUNCH - MARCH 18TH, 2025
Have you read our interviews with Cassidy McFadzean and Naben Ruthnum? Did you catch Jean Marc Ah-Sen and Michael Lapointe at our Reading Series? If so, then you’ll love Dead Writers, released today by Invisible Publishing!
In this collaborative fiction project, four writers navigate the protean concept of the “bargain” in novella-length stories. A biographer surveying the career of a “haunted” literary figure, a lovelorn journalist entering into a diabolic covenant, a tourist attempting to stay sober through her holiday travels, and a doctor’s complicity in a colonial scandal: These horror-inflected offerings of existential dread, tainted pasts, and uncertain futures serve as an unbalancing reminder that there is always a high price to pay for the corruption of the soul.
You can find Dead Writers at Invisible Publishing’s website, linked here:
support from the Ontario Arts Council! - November 13th, 2024
Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of The Ampersand Review Reading Series for the 2024/2025 season through the Ontario Arts Presenters Projects Grant!
nomad customs and snaptique sponsorship - April 2nd, 2024
We are happy to announce a generous sponsorship from NOMAD Customs for our upcoming Issue No. 5 launch. They will be providing a Snaptique photobooth for our attendees to create lasting memories during the festivities.