CNQ is back - and I'm in it!

One of my favourite literary magazines, Canadian Notes & Queries (CNQ), is back after a two-year hiatus, publishing its issue #115. And oh look, I have a piece in it, a review of Lauren Carter’s new novel, The Longest Night. It's great to be back in the pages of this long-running journal, and there's lots to love about Carter's new tome, a mix of time-travelling fantasy and literary fiction.

It's such a relief to have CNQ back in the world, and not just because it can help fill the void when it comes to actual evaluative literary criticism in this country. CNQ has always been filled with astringent reviews, but it's also home to insightful feature articles and accessible reminders of Canada's literary heritage. It's nice to have this edgy magazine back on the newsstands.

Anyway, pick up your copy wherever better magazines are sold.

M.

Review: Enshittification, by Cory Doctorow

Has Big Tech turned everything shitty? Are the digital products and services we've come to rely on getting worse, thanks to monopoly and technofeudalism? Are there bigger issues at stake than just frustration and inconvenience? These are some of the ideas I touch upon in my review of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do about It, by Cory Doctorow, for Canadian Writers Abroad. Here's an excerpt:

All this makes it sound like I don’t think there’s much value in reading Enshittification, and that’s not true. Doctorow’s insights into the unfair practices of Big Tech are spot on. His own story of trying to get “verified” on a freshly enshittified ... Twitter is hilarious. He’s right to praise the Biden administration for being the first to challenge antitrust laws and norms in the US that have led to so much corporate consolidation and oligarchy. He’s also right to point out how odious it is to be charged a monthly or annual subscription fee on software for a piece of technology we’ve purchased and now own — anything from cars and household appliances to the colours available to us in Adobe. 

Read the full review.

Review: Our Fifth Season, by Josee Sigouin

I'm excited to share that I've gotten a new book review published - of Josée Sigouin's debut novel, Our Fifth Season (Blue Denim Press, 2025) in the pages of Devour: Art & Lit Canada #22. I've known Josée around the Toronto literary scene for many years now, and I was honoured to lend my endorsement to her smart and accomplished tale about two star-crossed lovers divided by age, geography and culture.

Here's an excerpt of my review:

"In this slim debut novel, Josée Sigouin has written a rich, wide-ranging exploration of how the term ‘distance’ can take on multiple meanings in a single relationship. Our Fifth Season examines what it means to love another person without a full picture of them, to give ourselves over to intense emotions even from a position of isolation from the source of those feelings."