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Arts & Culture Archive

Under the Pudding Skin: A Conversation About Bruce Taylor

by David Godkin and Mathew Henderson Two poetry lovers discover a “master versifer” in Taylor’s new collection, No End in Strangeness.

David Godkin (formerly David Kosub) has written poetry and fiction reviews for literary journals across Canada, including the Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, Arc, the Fiddlehead, Quill and Quire, Books in Canada, and What! He has a masters degree in English Literature from York University, is a prolific singer-songwriter and writes the weekly poetry blog Speaking of Poems.

Mathew Henderson is …

Interview With Jonah Campbell

by Diana Kole The author of Food & Trembling on his affinity for linguistic play, the genius of Scotch Club and why Montreal is not a great food city.

Jonah Campbell, logophile and eater, writes in a shifting register that bridges whatever gap there is between the OED and Doritos All Nighter Cheeseburger Chips. Campbell claims that the appeal of his writing lies in “the fumbling charm of the amateur”—but the wit of his recent book Food & Trembling (Invisible Publishing) isn’t so reduced. The essay collection isn …

Why Quebec Comedy Isn’t Funny

by Marie-Andrée Labbé La belle province has its own humour industry of massive superstars and classic shows. Too bad the jokes are totally lame.

Illustration by Catherine Lepage.

I was born on the banks of the river, enveloped by the smell of kelp. Over the course of my life, I’ve seen an average of one beluga per day. I say this to stress just how Québécoise I am. At night, I dream of our daytime TV shows, and of our dear …

Maisy’s Best Books of 2011

by Various Contributors Our contributors on their favourite reads of the year.

John Jeremiah Sullivan, the author of Pulphead. Photo by Harry Taylor.

As we did in 2009 and 2010, Maisonneuve asked anyone who wrote for us in 2011 to send us a few words on the best books they read this year. Most were published in 2011; a few weren’t. The result is a highly incomplete portrait of a year …

Interview With Michael DeForge

by Eric Mutrie The cartoonist behind Maisonneuve’s regular comic, Rescue Pet, on the cute, the unsettling and his “go-to source of humour.”

Clancy, Mayumi and Marcus, the stars of Michael DeForge’s comic Rescue Pet.

Michael DeForge is a Toronto-based cartoonist and the winner of two Doug Wright Awards for Canadian comics. “If the Doug Wright Awards were the Oscars,” wrote journalist Jeet Heer earlier this year, “DeForge is fast emerging as our equivalent of Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep: an artist …

Rites of Return

by Abou Farman Odysseus, Don Quixote, modern refugees—some of us never truly leave home behind.

Photograph by Kourosh Keshiri.

LOST PIGEONS

Among the countless homing pigeons released into the sky every year—their return to the coop all but certain—a few always go missing. They might take an unanticipated left and drift off, flying into the unknown or maybe even the imagined, somewhere far away from the sureties of home and destiny. Soon enough …

Winter

ISSUE 42 Winter 2011

online content:

also in this issue:

  • Getting Plowed

    by Selena Ross In this exclusive investigative report from Montreal, Maisonneuve exposes the bid-rigging, violence and sabotage at the heart of an unlikely racket: snow removal.

  • In the House of the Lord

    by Andrea Bennett The Jackson Avenue Housing Co-operative and the religious battle raging in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

  • After Jack

    by Nick Taylor-Vaisey Last May, Jack Layton led the NDP to the greatest victory in party history. Now that he's gone, will the party be able to maintain its momentum?
  • [see full issue contents]