Multi- or at least bilingualism is a given in Quebec, and identifying a common language is often the starting point of an everyday interpersonal exchange—will this person speak English? will this person speak French? what will the implications be of prioritizing one language over the other? And, in contrast, imagine the consistent delight of hearing, speaking, reading, and integrating an international heterogeneity of languages, beyond the official English and French, that reside all around us. While retaining its English-language focus, this brand new, summer 2018 Issue 33 of carte blanche celebrates linguistic diversity, particularly in light of being based in Montreal, Quebec. This issue showcases a handful of exceptional authors’ reactions to relationships between languages—the joys of multilingualism, the creative potential of language slippage, the complexities of language acquisition, the inventive scope of neologism, and much more. Read more →

I spent December and most of January in South Africa, working on this brand new issue 32 of carte blanche from afar and with the kind support of the team who held editorial meetings via Skype. More to the point, though, my time in Cape Town put me directly in touch with the extremities and potential crises of climate—currently, there is a major drought threatening “solutions” such as depopulating the city when water reserves leak down to rock bottom by mid-March.

Relevantly, authors in issue 32 relate to an ecological consciousness through literature. “My mouth develops its very own microclimate,” writes Madhur Anand in her poem “Love Numbers.” Through language, she directs a discussion of the responsibility of humanity living on this planet through the mouth, the primal organ of language, navigating an ecological consciousness onto the page.
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Editor’s Note: Issue 31

This is not the place to remind of news sources and Twitter feeds. But even within the contexts of the short stories, poems, translations, Q&A’s, and comics included here, the outside infiltrates and characters struggle to absorb or extricate their inner lives from the clash of existence. Addiction features. Death offers its mournful cloak. Relationships disintegrate and interpersonal contact chafes. Society impinges with striking defiance of what individuals actually need to be content.

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Issue 28: The Personal is Publishable

There have been more reasons than usual in recent years to wonder about the connection between the worlds authors create on the page and the lives they in the real world. I’ll cite the most famous examples here: the controversy surrounding the “unveiling” of Elena Ferrante’s identity, and the almost polar opposite case of Karl Ove Knausgaard, who has deliberately placed almost his entire existence in view of the literary public.

Or has he?

It’s possible that the days when authors could speak only through their books are over, or at the very least, it’ll take exceptional luck and/or persistence to be able to succeed commercially while retaining a fully private life. In the social media era, can anyone afford the luxury of privacy?

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Does Issue 27 bring good karma? We say yes. YOU be the judge

Twenty-seven is a number with a bit of a karmic weirdness to it. Music lovers know that 27 is the age at which many talented rock stars meet an untimely end. Not cool. More edifying is the fact that 27 has its own Wikipedia page. That’s how we’re able to tell you other interesting facts about 27. “Twenty-seven is a perfect cube, being 33 = 3 × 3 × 3. 27 is also 23.” Perhaps even more marvellous is the fact that 27 is the “atomic weight of the only stable isotope of aluminum.” There are many very nifty things about 27, and Issue 27 of carte blanche is no exception. How about we just dive right in, then, and get you acquainted with this beautiful, tragic, comic, life-affirming number?

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Perhaps are our most international issue yet

Earlier this year we batted around the idea that instead of publishing three issues per year, we could publish individual works every single week. In the end, we opted for the status quo, and while status quo never sounds sexy, there are actually huge upsides to the traditions we’ve established. For one, issue deadlines have an amazing power of focusing the mind! As ever, we’ve been amazed at the sense of teamwork and dedication that everyone at the magazine demonstrates without fail, including our contributors, whose submissions have kept us riveted. Even though all of us editors work or study full-time, emails fly around at 6:00 am or at midnight and all weekend long. It’s inspiring to collaborate with professionals who are committed to this labour of love. Read more →