| Calgary’s oldest literary magazine got its start in 1975. Dandelion has featured new, diverse and experimental writing with a prairie focus. However, that standardized spelling looks out of place to anyone who’s seen the magazine lately.
"The first "little d" dANDelion issues were produced by the University of Calgary’s Department of English creative writing classes, with each year’s class being responsible for the two issues published in their year," remembers Emily Cargan, the managing editor for the transition. After 25 years of publication, the Dandelion Magazine Society ran into some financial burnout and approached the University of Calgary for a shot at survival. "In our creative writing program, we thought it would be a good forum for our graduate students to get magazine editing and production experience," says Freh Wah, then-professor at the U of C.
Right from the start, dANDelion was produced at the University of Calgary, but not by the university – the institution provides office space and wages for the editors, but has no control over production, funding or content. Now, the magazine is still run by graduate students at the university, but it’s no longer put together by creative writing classes. "The editorship changes every year," explains current assistant editor Jonathan Ball. "An assistant editor comes on, works and learns under the current editor, then becomes the managing editor next year. That way, there’s a certain level of consistency in what the magazine’s about, but the interests can rapidly and substantially change."
Current managing editor Jordan Nail hasn’t been sitting idle during his tenure: "We’ve got prose, visual art, poetry and even interviews!" he says.
While dANDelion is a great source for innovative art, it’s also a teaching tool for emerging writers and critics at the U of C. "dANDelion provides an invaluable service to those students who have the chance to work on it," says Cargan. "For many it is the first experience they may have of working in small-press publishing, with all its stressful funding issues and minimal remuneration. For those who’ve suffered the frustration of not getting published, work on dANDelion reveals the other side of the business, encouraging the development of patience and some detachment from their work on the part of fledgling writers. And," she adds, "there is no better way to develop tact and diplomacy than to write numerous rejection letters."
As for the mysteriously large AND, let’s go back to Wah for an explanation. "It’s basically just a typographical intervention into the older name, using the resonances of conjunction," he says. "We wanted to separate ourselves from the earlier magazine, but at the same time hang on to the notion that it was a Calgary magazine. I’m glad it still is."
dANDelion is published twice a year, and can be purchased at most independent bookstores across Canada, including McNally Robinson and Pages Books in Calgary for a cover price of $10.00. Subscriptions are available at www.dandelionmagazine.ca
Downstairs from the dandelion office in the Social Sciences building at the University of Calgary, another magazine has emerged. Its genesis took place in 2005, when Colin Martin attended a meeting of the Creative Writing Research Group. "I brought up the complaint that the campus literary magazine, dANDelion, was unable to accept work from the students at the University of Calgary," he says. "I thought that was asinine. A professor mentioned orange, a previous student-run publication. Turns out, there had been several previous incarnations including Sanskrit. It was a cycle – a bunch of avid creative writers get together, start a publication, put out some really fantastic issues, finish school, leave and the project dies. I wanted to start another magazine, where beginning writers from the U of C and elsewhere could be published alongside veteran writers, and that would not vanish when our core group graduated."
NoD Magazine was born. Martin teamed up with an undergraduate club, the English Literature Students’ Society, to provide a framework for the project, and he was off. "Right from the start, we wanted to make something that wasn’t just photocopies stapled together. We wanted to kick up the esthetic to a professional level so that students submitting to NoD would be able to look at it and say, ‘This is a legitimate publication, this is a professional endeavour.’ We started right off with a glossy cover, perfect-bound, with a local printing company who gave us a very reasonable rate." However, as he notes, "Reasonable still isn’t free. Money has been a recurring problem."
Since the magazine is so heavily linked to the university, it is ineligible for public funding, so they looked for money around campus, failing to procure funding from both the Alumni Association and the Students’ Union. "Last year, I had to personally subsidize the magazine to make sure the bills got paid," says Martin. "That’s not a reasonable expectation for anyone stepping in – ‘We’re all voting for you as the new publisher of the magazine. By the way, in addition to your crushing tuition debtload, you’re going to have to cough up $500 to keep this thing rolling.’ You can’t expect that of people, especially students. I think it’s ridiculous that what has the potential to be a long-lasting, legitimate enterprise, adding a creative cachet to a university that desperately needs it to offset their reputation as an oil school, can’t even get a few hundred bucks from the institution."
NoD sets itself apart from other local magazines with a mandate of inclusion. "The editorial collective doesn’t get to see names of the people submitting work – that was a really proper way to bring democracy into it," says Martin. "We actually sent rejection letters to a couple of very well-known writers last year, and it was a really unique experience to say, ‘Yes, this first-time submission by a poet whose work has never been publicly read before is actually stronger than this one by a known figure in the artistic community.’" The magazine also has a very strict "Fuck Hate" policy. "We want people to push the edges artistically – however, anything that is hurtful or demeaning, we’ll reject categorically."
Currently steering the fair ship NoD are editor Felicia Pacentrilli and assistant editor Jane Thompson, who have navigated through rocky financial troubles and are slowly emerging into calmer waters. Their first issue, horror-themed, is still on sale, and they’re preparing for the second. "There are three issues a year, one themed, one non-themed and one non-English language," says Thompson. They’re currently accepting submissions for the non-themed issue, which can be sent via attachment to nodmagazine@gmail.com.
NoD can be picked up at various locations across the university campus – the ELSS office (Social Sciences 1025), the university bookstore, the English Department office – and also at McNally Robinson (120 8th Ave S.W.), for only $6.
To celebrate Saskatchewan’s 100th birthday in 2005, Mark Greschner decided to photograph 100 Saskatchewanian centenarians. The result: 100 Years of Heart, a photographic journey into Saskatchewan’s history and spirit. He’ll be at McNally Robinson on Thursday, December 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Rona Altrows’s book of short stories, Run on Hose, takes the perspectives of several women to create a portrait of humanity. Meet the author at McNally Robinson on Friday, December 8 at noon.
Get bowled over by local authors Sian James and Morna Gregory as they launch their new book Toilets of the World at the Kensington Pub on Sunday, December 10 at 4 p.m.
Finally, we’ve got a new Parliamentary Poet Laureate! Following in the footsteps of George Bowering and Pauline Michel, John Steffler took the position on December 4. |
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