ALLISON CHOW Some Three Hours in the Evening of August Sixteenth When I Am Nineteen One of my grandfathers looks like a Chinese Dustin Hoffman. He has gotten more handsome with age. When we go out to restaurantson SaturdaysI open doors for himbecause he is decades olderthan I ambut morebecause my reverencefor him cannot be containedsilentlyor only within me. Really it is my honourto open doors for him. Some Three Hours in the Evening…appeared in
GUSTAVE MORIN What Can a Dog Do? What Can a Dog Do?appeared in CAROUSEL 17 (2005) — buy it here
J.R. MYERS The Last Snowman It was a battle again; Ray pushing and demanding, never satisfied because he didn’t know what he wanted; Ethel pining to be left alone, wanting nothing more than to gaze at old familiar things and daydream. “It’s no use your moping around,” Ray scowled when his wife refused to come outside with him. “And it’s no use your storming around like a bull in a china
DUNJA LUKIC December 1992 I. It was in the shadows of a dark first winterwhen the stars were frozen in the night domeand even with our spinningwe couldn’t shake them from the skyheld our hungry mouths openwaiting for those falling universes to explode on our tongues expectant hoping our bellies would be swollen with stars. II. With wide seven year old eyes that same winter the sky was colorless it was snowing I saw stars
DAN WELLS Spare Change There he was, once again. Sitting on his bench, clothed in a knatty white dress shirt, collar curling like a dead leaf, dress pants cinched so tight they ballooned. He had a build for begging, emaciated limbs striking right angles, threatening to poke new holes in his clothing. He smiled at Paul, wished him a good morning. Paul scowled, locked the door behind him. Beggars were never good for business.
JEANNIE THIB Dissections Plate III + IV Dissections Plate III + IV appeared in CAROUSEL 16 (2004) — buy it here
JOHN B. Lee Drugging the Fishes It seemsthe things we flushare drugging the fishesin New York City, for instancethere’s enough Prozacin the East Riverto keepthe herring happy as housewivesin sitcoms all seasonproblem is — they’ve lost theirinterest in spawning, soif and when the males come-a-milting(though they mostly come-a-tilting)they keep their eggsto themselves, their roe in sacks like bobblesthey’re so swim-dizzy they’ve lost all desireeven the words ‘oviparous,spontaneous myosis, external fertilization,egg vent’leave them cold-blooded …even the
BRIAN BURKE Hibiscus iguanas hide in the drain pipesof a twenty-foot walloutside our studio doorfeed on the hibiscuscamouflaged from gamekeepersintent on banishing themto the lush green golf coursebeside the ocean the iguana journey back hang on overhead palm branches bury themselves in small rock crevices dig out shaded caves near the shore & finally stretch their necks out of the drain-piped wall of rock cautious but dreaming also of rain of gamekeepers & of dinosaurs
D.N. SIMMERS Letting an Umbrella Open Into the Wind I let an umbrella
WENDY LU Untitled Untitled appeared in CAROUSEL 15 (2004) — buy it here
SOROUJA MOLL Office Corner Office Corner appeared in CAROUSEL 15 (2004) — buy it here
Summer 2020; 80 pages perfect-bound w/ bleedsCover artwork by Mark LaliberteDesign by Origin Obscure The summer 2020 issue of CAROUSEL — our final print issue — is available to order now! Poetry, Fiction, Comics, Interviews & Artwork by: John Barton • Gary Barwin • derek beaulieu • David James Brock • Sue Chenette • Jeremy Colangelo • Adam Day • Leesa Dean • Jonathan Duckworth • Jonathan Dyck • Kenneth Jakubas • Karl Jirgens •
Kim Jooha recently guest-edited The 4PANEL Project‘s 8-page Supplement section in CAROUSEL 42. This special section features explorations of the four-panel comic strip format by an absolutely magical roster of both Canadian and international artists: William Dereume (Canada) Margaux Duseigneur (France) François Henninger (France) Huh Hyunjung (South Korea) Laurence Lagier (France) Lomé Lu (France) Andrea Lukic (Canada) Juli Majer (Canada) Manuel (France) Aeon Mute (Canada) OOO (Korea) Rantan (Korea) Caroline Sury (France) Jeong Wonkyo (Korea) Woo Younsik (Korea) While the 4PANEL Supplement
A compilation of poetry collections recommended by LGBTQA+GTA interviewees Audre Lorde, The Collected Poems Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound is a World Brian Dedora, A Few Sharp Sticks Chrystos, Fire Power Dionne Brand, No Language is Neutral Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay Essex Hemphill, Ceremonies Gwen Benaway, Holy Wild Hafiz, The Divan of Hafiz June Jordan, Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan Kevin Simmonds, Mad for Meat
BÄNOO ZAN The Land of Orange Blossoms * You journey to me I circle your squarelike a pilgrim farewellto Kaaba Your womenin farmers’ market sell me herbs of memoryin floral dresses I’m a babyat their breasts drinking the milk of blood letting go of water Your mentoil in fields ofabundance smelling the difference between rice and books Relatives take me inknowing I’m notone of them Friends keep me aliveto confront them After all these yearsyou
KAMILA RINA Imprints Last night, my ass pressed against the sink, the dish drainer rattling behind me, my teeth against your shoulders, your arm holding me up, my skirt pushed up past my hip on one side, the fingers of your other hand moved inside me in an elegant dance. Like ballet underwater, the steps fanned out in all directions: point up, reach deep, tug forward toward my pubic bone, twist and turn, sweep to
KIRBY 3:52 PM It’s Wednesday(all this time thought it was Tuesday) adult peeps just off N. Sylvanialast booth on the right ajar construction worker tank jeans wide opencock juts out rigid hard raging lit by moaning straight porn breathtaking says nothing smokes transfixed on screen pretendsthey don’t see me enter kneel stare weep wonder imaginebefore god almighty living god in your mouthyour all of you given over to your godno holding back
KHASHAYAR MOHAMMADI Pillow’s Kiss (excerpted from Moe’s Skin) Pillow’s kiss past midnight’s stroke and doze down the fugueof highway tunes. Up, up and away — past mall-lit windows wemigrate between, bootleg DVDs and cider house blues wherehatred blossoms in plastic-bagged opacity, past the hooka-smokinggirls lustfully eyeing lustful men in blue.Feel like a god, but slip on Moe’s Skin.A new motto for massage chair afternoons:“Don’t frown! You’ll slip.”A single leaf behind an iPod case;a Djinn in
TANIS FRANCO I Regret My Actions Up Until Now I rescheduled too many times but I actuallydo like you. This night is reminding methat I want to get over my avoidantnature. Something about those steely cloudsoutside, the fact that my roses have persistentpests, and the man who shot people justhaving an ordinary dinner on the Danforthlast night. We were going to have dinnerthis week. Today, my perfect bedroom rugwas delivered and it stood outside in
Featuring Poetry, Fiction, Reviews & Artwork by: Rachel Cloud Adams • Joshua Chris Bouchard • Tim Conley • Rocco De Giacomo • Jean Demers • Nicholas Di Genova • Tanis Franco • Eleanor Gray • KIRBY • Mark Laliberte • Evelyn Lau • Khashayar Mohammadi • gustave morin • Kamila Rina • Helen Tran • Daniel Scott Tysdal • Christine Walde • Jade Wallace • Myna Wallin • John Sibley Williams • Bänoo Zan Includes