If you are looking for serious literary journals worth you can pretty much pick up Brick and go home. There are other great journals of fiction and poetry, but none that do the essay, be it narrative or scholarly, much justice. Part of it is that the well connected editors of this journal take work from across the globe, using new and reprinted works from writers that pretty much define the term contemporary Commonwealth literature. But that’s really just to draw you in. This magazine is as willing to lend distinction to little known Canadian authors as it is to the big names. While you won’t find too much in the way of emerging work here, you will find meditations on diverse Canadian subjects by wide-ranging accomplished Canadian writers. Okay, sure, some of this stuff is bound to be boring, but it’s good boring — solidly built ruminations you can live in for many dull years. How do you build something strong enough to contain the love of the craft, without trapping it in a stilted form? Brick by brick, I guess.
lit journal / no known publisher / main creator: Linda Spalding (editor) / $4;$20/6 issues / Box 537, Station Q, Toronto, ON M4T 2M5