TNQ sweeps the NMAs

Call us the little magazine that could.

The New Quarterly took home gold medals in both poetry and fiction from the National Magazine Awards. Congrats to Alison Pick (who should call me if she's ever back in Kitchener), who took home the poetry medal for the sequence "Question and Answer," and to Anne Fleming, who took home the fiction medal for "Gay Dwarves of America" -- I love that story. As an added bonus, silver medalist in fiction Mike Barnes is a New Quarterly alumnus -- actually we like to claim to have discovered him.

No paid staff, no budget to speak of, and a circulation of less than a thousand, and we're publishing the best creative writing in Canada. And your subscription would mean oh so much to us. We're really life and death from day to day. Check out a single issue if you're shy: both award winners are in #84, which also has essays on research and writing, including my "Different Ghosts."

Speaking of people we discovered, look for Lesley Millard at the top of next year's list. Her "A Fine Country" is one of the best things I've read this year. And speaking of people who should call me, Lesley, are you out there? Coffee?