| For 17 years, Freefall Magazine has been the public face of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society. Recently, that face got a lift. Now hitting the shelves as a perfect-bound, shiny-cover, small-format book, the re-vamped Freefall is ready to take bookstores by storm.
When the magazine was started, says managing editor Lynn Fraser, "it was primarily a place to publish and promote members of the Alexandra Centre." Since then, Freefall has developed into an international voice, receiving submissions from across Canada, the United States, Europe and even Vietnam. Freefall, twice a year, publishes fiction, poetry, author profiles and reviews, and within the forest of literary magazines in Calgary, it has carved out its own niche. "filling Station and dANDelion are experimental magazines," says editor Micheline Maylor. "We tend to stay more within mainline traditional literature. In fS, you can find things like a sonnet by R2D2, whereas in our magazine there’s more domestic or confessional poetry. We’re even open to looking at things like old-form work, something like a villanelle or a sonnet. However, within that vein, I want to see something new and exciting. Not just a recycled sonnet, but something different. I believe that you have to know the old forms in order to become a poet. I don’t disagree with experimentation, but I want to know that the writer has traditional forms in their knowledge base."
Every year, Freefall publishes one regular issue and one contest issue; the deadline for the upcoming contest issue is December 31. Love-themed submissions will be reviewed by guest editor Christopher Wiseman. You can find the latest issue, Volume XVI Number two, in its snazzy, new format at Pages Books, Cabin Fever Books, Books on 4th, Annie’s Book Company, the University of Calgary Bookstore or the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society for $10.
filling Station’s monthly flywheel reading rolls around again this week, with an all-University of Calgary lineup! Join creative writing graduate students Nathan Dueck, Kevin McPherson-Eckhoff and Mike Roberson for an evening of poetry and fiction at McNally Robinson on Thursday, December 14 at 7:30 p.m., and catch your very first glimpse of filling Station issue #37!
Dr. Phil C. Minner, just in time for the holidays, presents The Positive Dictionary, a pocket-sized book that defines words with positive messages. Bibliophiles can find him at Annie’s Book Company on Thursday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.