WRITING
Saying “I Don’t”
“I have reached a certain age. Each spring, the invitations arrive in the mail. Dates are saved, accommodations booked, gifts and attire selected.”
Home Ice
“An ex-figure skater, I swapped my leotards for a jersey at thirteen; at my first hockey practice, I kept rolling off the rounded toe of my new skates. My new, black skates—how transgressive.”
The Crossing
“I didn’t panic. I was a strong swimmer. If it came to it, I could keep myself afloat for three hours. If not more. Probably more.”
My (Small Press) Writing Day
“For several years, I wrote from my bedroom. I couldn’t write until I’d made the bed and picked up all the dirty socks.”
What Playing the Piano Taught Me About Writing
“The movers cost about as much as the piano. When they pulled up in front of our house on a muggy day last August, I understood why.”
Resurfacing
“You wouldn’t know a man drowned here this morning. Probably an out-of-towner, thinks Jackie. It’s always the out-of-towners.”
Brothers
“Childhood is a lost war. Lost over and over again. Lost a thousand times, lost to infinity.”
Neal Baker’s Zebra-Skin Rug
“The hair dye, a home job, turned out tackier than she’d hoped, though the package promised a sultry Wine Red.”
Berri-UQAM
“You looked at them as though they were about to give you leprosy, ticks, and lice at the same time.”
Playing the Man
“I grip the railing of our second-floor balcony, lean over, and look down. She’s in her garden. Our Lady of the Tomatoes.”
Golden Birthday
“The counsellor called it a normal response to grief.”
Houseboat
“It’s summer. My parents are away at a week-long marriage retreat, but I don’t know that.”
Night Collection
“The hill plunges under Jill’s wheels. She stands poised over the frame on the pedals, a dart burning towards a target.”
The Host
“I pop up in bed like one of those inflatable air dancers, the kind used to advertise blowouts at furniture warehouses and car dealerships.”
Drum
“Southwest of Parliament Hill, the Ottawa River diverts in two streams around Victoria Island, a large chunk of land marooned in the river.”
Flame
“Today there is a shift: the sun rises one half-second earlier than it did the day before.”
My Quiet Revolution
“The fall I moved to Montréal was filled with introductions.”
Moira and the Moose
“The first moose Moira ever saw was dead. She was twelve, old to be seeing a first moose, at least for a girl who’d spent her whole life on the Island.”
the night I leave you
“the worst is knowing how wrong I am
as I march ahead”
Garbage Day
“The body of waste
will consume her one day”
carly rosalie vandergriendt 