Poetry Editor—the editor works both independently and in collaboration with the editorial team to help steer the magazine forward. The successful candidate would lead the poetry section of carte blanche for three issues per year (winter, spring/summer and fall). In particular, they would read all poetry submissions received, organize submissions and respond to authors through Submittable. They would also copyedit and suggest more substantial changes to poetry accepted for publication, when necessary. Because carte blanche is based in Montreal and publishes French texts in translation, knowledge of both English and French is an asset for this position. Excellent copyediting skills and keen attention to detail are key. Above all, we seek a passionate fan of literature and art—someone who has a love for narrative in their DNA.

I find myself stuck on nineteen words these days, repeating in my mind, filling every last inch of space. They have bonded themselves to my TO-DO LIST, like cloud to sun, blocking out encroaching deadlines, commitments, the need to buy milk on my way home. They have raised themselves like a wall around my mind… a blockade between me and my own words.

Nineteen words said Wednesday night by a very dear friend, over dinner in this broken city:

Back in the summer, when reading outside was a thing, I was sitting on my stoop, engrossed in Tommy Orange’s There There, when an older white woman interrupted to inform me that she’d quit reading the same novel a quarter of the way through because it was “too sad.” She said it like, How could I be expected to digest such a thing? Like, Isn’t reading supposed to be a pleasure and what was this, some kind of tricky trick to make me feel bad? And then she asked me, dubiously, whether I liked it and whether I was going to finish it.