As Issue 48.2 is still open for Canadian Literary submissions and Art Submissions until the submissions limit is met, we wanted to take some time to get to know the editors of the issue and how they’re thinking behind the scenes!
The following is Room Magazine Issue 48.2’s Meet the Editors Q&A. The editors interviewed are Lead Editor Lena Belova (LB), Assistant Editor Nara Monteiro (NM), and Shadow Editors Natasha Gauthier (NG) and Claire Diamant (CD). In submitting to Room, you allow us into a small part of the fabric of your life. Here’s a glimpse into ours.
The call for submissions for Issue 48.2 can be found here. Submissions opened on August 14th and will be accepted on a rolling basis until our submissions limit is reached.
What’s your favourite genre to read?
LB: My favourite genre is heartbreak literature. All my favourite novels and novellas I’ve read this past year are all about divorces, affairs, cheating: The Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir, Intertidal Life by Audrey Thomas, Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux, The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante. I’m attracted to the voice of heartbreak: so sharp and visceral, so raw and untamed. In bookstores, I’ve started picking up any fiction that references divorces and affairs on the back cover.
CD: I love slice-of-life. Anything that feels like a real, captured moment. To me, one of the best parts of writing is its archival quality, especially if the thing being archived and categorized is a feeling. I love the idea that the characters’ lives could continue after the book has finished, that we’re only seeing one snapshot in a much greater mural.
Are you currently reading anything? If so, would you recommend it? Why or why not?
LB: I’m rereading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet for the fourth time and recommend it to everyone constantly. (I think this is my third recommendation of it in a Room Mag interview). If I see a cheap copy of “My Brilliant Friend,” I will buy it just to give to someone. So far, I think I have gotten at least twelve people to read the series. It’s like my own version of going door to door, asking, “Have you heard about our lord and saviour Elena Ferrante?”
CD: I’m currently reading Queer by William S. Burroughs—partially because I want to read the novel prior to watching the Daniel Craig movie that is supposedly coming out later this year. It’s not necessarily a very satisfying read, which I suspect was the intention, as the writing meanders in the same way its protagonist does. Not sure it’s the kind of book you recommend to people, more something to mention off-handedly in conversation and let idle curiosity do the rest of the work.
NG: I’ve been reading Dear Current Occupant by Chelene Knight pretty closely, partly to look at it from a craft perspective while I work on my thesis, and partly because I had some similar experiences growing up with a complicated mom, having to move a lot, constantly readjusting. It’s comforting, the way talking to an old friend is. And it’s helping me shift my perspective a little and reclaim some of my power the way you do when you have your experiences validated. Definitely recommend.
NM: I’m currently reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler alongside the Unbound Reading Series. The novel was written in 1993, and the first of the diary entries that make up the story is dated July 20th, 2024. It’s full of violence and depressingly relevant as climate change intensifies, wars rage, and governments continue to fail us, but it contains powerful imaginings of communities that can weather horrors and dream beyond them. The teachings of Lauren, the protagonist, have stayed with me: “All that you touch / You Change. / All that you Change / Changes you. / The only lasting truth / Is Change. / God / is Change.” It’s a book for our times.
Who’s your biggest literary inspiration?
NM: Ursula K. Le Guin. I greatly admire the depth of her thought, the breadth of her empathy, the beauty of her language, her humility, her humour, and her unwavering commitment to principles I share. The Left Hand of Darkness is a deeply emotional book for me in the ways that it examines belonging, culture, personhood, and gender, and as I try to navigate being a caring person in this flawed world I know I will return over and over again to The Dispossessed. She inspires me to try to put the best of myself into my writing.
Do you prefer to read physical books or e-books?
NG: Physical. 100%. Screen-fatigue is a thing. Plus there’s something nostalgic, or maybe even romantic, about holding a book in my hands and turning the pages, touching the words. I feel somehow closer to the author this way. I also really love finding little surprises in used books, like notes or inscriptions. I love a good RL Easter egg. Haha.
CD: Physical books, particularly used. While I read e-books more often—library apps are almost too convenient—I feel much more fulfilled having read a physical copy of a book. I have a special fondness for books with writing in the margins. It feels like someone sharing their thoughts with me, even though we’re strangers, even if they wrote it years before I was born. E-books feel much colder to me.
What’s your current on-repeat song?
LB: “Just Twisted” by Penelope Swales. That song just reaches deep down into my soul and pulls everything up.
NM: “Lunch” by Billie Eilish.
CD: “Don’t Delete The Kisses” by Wolf Alice. Can’t believe I didn’t listen to it sooner.
If your life was a tapestry or collage, what material would it be made of?
NG: Burlap and taffeta.
NM: Mustard yellow velvet.
CD: Sheep’s wool.
LB: Dark green silk and cedar bark.
What are you most looking forward to about the upcoming issue?
NM: I’m excited to dive into the excellent stories and poems in the submissions pile, and to find the ways the pieces speak to each other and fit together. Lena was also a wonderful assistant editor when I led 47.3 Bodies, and they’re leading us on this issue, so I’m really looking forward to following their leadership and seeing their vision for the issue unfold.
What’s your favourite quote about a place? Why is it your favourite?
NG: “I joined the Navy to see the world, and all I saw was the sea.” This is what my grandpa said when I told him I was thinking of joining up. I was 20-ish and directionless. Or I didn’t believe that I could really be a writer or an artist. I thought I had to do something more serious, more “real.” He had dementia and let me know in his own way that it was a terrible idea.
NM: “What an age! Every one is dying, everything is dying, and the earth is dying also, eaten up by the sun and the wind. I don’t know where I get the courage to keep on living in the midst of these ruins. Let us love each other to the end.” —George Sands, in a letter to Gustave Flaubert. I’m cheating a little, considering “earth” as a place, but this snippet from 1870 makes me feel connected to someone across a vast period of time, and that feels very special.
CD: “…quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean “love” in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again.” In Goodbye to All That, Joan Didion captures the way I feel about New York City. My father is from there, and I have been only twice in my life, but I cannot help but feel deeply, idealistically attached. I’m not sure this is my favourite quote about a place, but it is one I think of often.
What’s your favourite part about being a RoomMate?
LB: My favourite part of being a RoomMate is getting to know new people and make friends, which is the main reason for me to do most things.
NG: Working with a group of creative women, trans, and non-binary people feels like some good ol’ witchy magic, and I think the job of putting people’s art out into the world is really exciting because artmaking takes courage and creates hope, and that is some really powerful medicine to spread around.
