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Second Memory

Second Memory

What else did Barthes write? I cannot decipher you because I do not know how you decipher me. I learn to pull the signified from the mouths of other women who once looked like me. I learn to pour water from one vase into another heirloom. There is the slight residue...

Good Friends We Have

Good Friends We Have

“Good Friends We Have” is the honourable mention for Room’s Fiction Contest 2020. My grandmother said, you can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends, so choose wisely. But I didn’t so much choose my friends as they chose me. At school, we clung...

Fiction Contest 2020: The Winners!

Fiction Contest 2020: The Winners!

Here are the winning short stories as selected by our esteemed judge, Rebecca Fisseha. A major congrats to the three writers! Here are what our judge has to say about the three winning submissions. Photo credit: Melanie EvelynThe results are finally here! Here are the...

Look After Her

Look After Her

By Hannah Brown, Inanna Publications, 448 pages, $22.95, 2020 Packed with action and intrigue, and impeccably paced, Hannah Brown’s debut novel Look After Her is a gripping, accomplished piece of feminist historical fiction that provides insight into the depths of our...

Fiction Contest 2020: The Shortlist

Fiction Contest 2020: The Shortlist

Congrats to the following six writers who are shortlisted by our judge, Rebecca Fisseha, for our 2020 Fiction Contest! Congrats to the following six writers who are shortlisted by our judge, Rebecca Fisseha, for our 2020 Fiction Contest!Room's 2020 Fiction Contest:...

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian)

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian)

It is the simplest sentences that devastate in the debut novel from Hazel Jane Plante. “Vivian was my favourite person,” the narrator writes about her best friend, unrequited lover, and fellow femme trans conspirator in the wake of her sudden passing. It’s more a...

Fiction Contest 2020: The Shortlist

Fiction Contest 2020: The Longlist

The time has come for us to share the longlisted short stories from our 2020 Fiction Contest! The time has come for us to share the longlisted short stories from our 2020 Fiction Contest. Congrats to the following twelve writers!Room's 2020 Fiction Contest: The...

Sonnet’s Shakespeare

Sonnet’s Shakespeare

Sonnet L’Abbé’s third poetry collection is an incredibly ambitious project that assimilates William Shakespeare’s poetry, and it does not disappoint. Letter by letter, L’Abbé inserts her own language into his poetry, erasing and engulfing his words into her own. While...

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ROOM 48.1 WITS END
In times of crisis, we laugh to offer tenderness, to ward off despair— so we can be brave. Gather round ROOM 48.1 WITS END and let humour be a mirror held up to the state of the world as we continue to resist.

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ROOM 47.4 FULL CIRCLE
Step back with Room into the past, to parents, to childhood homes, and to people once known and loved; dig into themes of grief and healing; and ultimately explore what it means to come full circle in literature.

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