USEREVIEW 115: The Can’t-Miss Poetry Catch-Up

USEREVIEW 115: The Can’t-Miss Poetry Catch-Up

As a Reviews Editor, I try to be conscientious about only ordering ARCs that are likely to actually get reviewed for CAROUSEL. Publishers, especially small presses, often run on tight budgets, and I don’t want them to spend time and money sending out books that will languish on a shelf. But I’m also only human, and sometimes I miscalculate, and we end up with more books than review slots, or a book I would have

Read More

CAROUSEL Recommends: More books from 2022 to check out!

CAROUSEL Recommends: More books from 2022 to check out!

To our infinite dismay, we at USEREVIEW cannot possibly review all of the wonderful books that come out in any given year — but we can do our best to give a little extra attention to books written by our much-appreciated former, current and forthcoming CAROUSEL contributors! As 2022 ends, join us as we look back on some of the amazing books published by CAROUSEL contributors this year … #USEREVIEWEDNESDAY CHAPBOOKS NOVELS & NOVELLAS POETRY

Read More

A Queer Lit Reading List

A Queer Lit Reading List

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

Read More

TCAF 365 @ Toronto Reference Library

TCAF 365 @ Toronto Reference Library

While TCAF only happens for a week each year, comics culture remains alive and well at the Toronto Reference Library all year round … … did you know that Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop is a recent, permanent on-site addition to the ground floor of the library? This well-curated retail environment presents the very best of comics, graphic novels, art, design objects and book culture merchandise to Toronto. They even carry a handful of

Read More

CAROUSEL available at Art Metropole

CAROUSEL available at Art Metropole

Looking for a good place to pick up copies of CAROUSEL in Toronto? We recommend Art Metropole (1490 Dundas St W / ph: 416.703.4400 / store hours: Wed – Sat, Noon to 7pm) ….. Here’s a link to our current issue

Scenes from KAZOO 2015

Scenes from KAZOO 2015

Always a great time in Guelph, ON — the KAZOOFEST people put on an excellent fair, and the whole city is alive with music and art! Here’s a peek at a few moments from the day. Great attendance at the Print Expo, an eager audience Artist Justin Gordon did an really cool window display at Disarrays (he’ll likely be appearing in CAROUSEL 36, due out around Christmas, BTW)    

DESCANT 164 focuses exclusively on comics culture

DESCANT 164 focuses exclusively on comics culture

Descant 164: Cartooning Degree Zero Launch Party Tue Apr 29, 7-10pm @ The Handlebar (159 Augusta Ave, Toronto) Descant is releasing its Spring 2014 issue, Cartooning Degree Zero. This issue explores the medium of comics, from its sense of play with text and image and the literary possibilities these games entail, to the great Canadian artists responsible for the popularity of visual storytelling today. Come for a light snack, drinks, raffle prizes and readings by leading lights in

Read More

CAROUSEL at The Artist Project (Feb 21-23 / Toronto)

CAROUSEL will be at The Artist Project Contemporary Art Fair, from Feb 21-23, 2014 — come check out the amazing art, and be sure to stop by The Magazine Lounge to say hello; we’ll be showcased in the lounge along with these other fine Art & Culture publications: Aesthetica Magazine, C Magazine, Canadian Art, Carbon Paper, Designlines, Toronto Life and The Walrus. The Magazine Lounge Coffee Bar features modern Italian furniture designed by Konstantin Grcic

Read More

See you at CANZINE 2013!

On Sun Oct 20 CAROUSEL will be participating in Canzine Toronto, Canada’s largest festival of zine culture and independent arts, hosted by Broken Pencil Magazine. Canzine is a prime opportunity to mingle with talented writers, artists, publishers and performers from across North America and search out new local (and non-local) gems; it features hundreds of zines, small presses, comics and more. 918 Bathurst Arts/Culture Centre, 918 Bathurst St. 1-7pm $5 entry includes the fall issue

Read More

2013 The Word On The Street Toronto Festival!

CAROUSEL magazine will be present at The Word on the Street Toronto Festival (Queen’s Park) this Sunday September 22 from 11am-6pm — we’d love it if you stopped by! We’ll be located at booth MM1 (in the Magazine Mews section, east side of the park) What will be offering? – select back issues (for the amazing price of $5 each) will allow you to delve into the past! – extremely discounted subscription packages will point you

Read More

ZINE DREAM 6 (Aug 02-04, 2013 / Toronto)

The 6th Annual Zine Dream Small Press Fair: a weekend long celebration of self-publishing in Toronto! Fri Aug 02, 7pm: Nieves Zine Library (founded by Benjamin Sommerhalder in 2001 in Zurich) and Innen (an independent publisher founded by Hungarian graphic designer Aaron Fabian in 2006)  at Art Metropole (1490 Dundas St W): a full retrospective of the Nieves Zine Library alongside a specially designed display of Innen Shop including an on-glass-installation in the window at

Read More

Mark Laliberte launches ANGRY BLACK BANG

Angry Black Bang — Toronto Book Launch! Sat Jul 27, 12-2pm @ 99 Gallery (99 Sudbury St) Held in association with THE NOISE PROJECT, come out to the afternoon launch of CAROUSEL managing editor’s new artist book Angry Black Bang, a 28pg risograph book where graphic design, sound poetry and experimental comics are jaggedly blended into a new hybrid literary form. In ABB, speech bubbles and thought clouds (the mechanisms used to express language in

Read More

Marc Ngui’s ‘A Thousand Plateaus’ drawing project

4PANEL artist Marc Ngui has resumed work on his ‘A Thousand Plateaus’ drawing project, a methodical interpretation of A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schzophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Drawings is a newly launched Tumblr blog where the artist rolls a number of interests (philosophy, science, comics, visual language, diagrams) into an extended sequence of minimal illustrations. Starting with chapter 3 of the book (‘10,000 B.C.: A Geology of Morals’), Ngui posts

Read More

July is International Zine Month

International Zine Month is an annual celebration of zines, self publishing and small press culture that happens throughout the month of July … what cool little things are YOU planning to make this month? : : : : Join the Facebook Group: here : : : : Follow IZM posts on Twitter using: #izm2013

VERWHO? DEBUTS AT 4PANEL.CA

Do you know the work of verwho?? verwho? (aka Katherine Verhoeven) is a Toronto-based comic artist and illustrator who is part of the zine collective Friendship Edition; her first 4PANEL strip, ‘From One’  just debuted at 4panel.ca We recommend you check out her zine Dangerous Cooking (21 pages, half-letter, b/w), a sexy story of love, cheating, and foods that burn! :::::::::: More info at: verwho.com :::::::::: Follow the verwho? webcomic Meat&Bone here

ORLAN vs GAGA

French artist ORLAN (who we featured/interviewed way back in CAROUSEL 24) is suing Lady Gaga (and the French subsidiary of Universal Music) for plagiarism in a Paris court. In the lawsuit, the artist accuses the singer of stealing from her to construct the visual universe of her third album, Born This Way — ORLAN works cited to have been plagiarized include: Bump-Load (2009), a sculpture representing ORLAN as a bionic hybrid; and Woman with Head (1996), a performance

Read More

Sever Press

At this year’s TCAF, we sat next to the Sab and Emily, two cool Torontonians who recently started up SEVER PRESS; they make interesting small-run zines, prints and tees … Want to check out their stuff? We recommend starting with Black Tooth 01, an ongoing, artist-book comic collaborative between Kelly Kwang and Sab Meynert — it’s a 16 page zine risographed in deep purple with a silkscreened cover in gold! : : : : More info about

Read More

LARRY EISENSTEIN – Negative Capability exhibition

Larry Eisenstein Negative Capability May 25 – Jun 16, 2013 (opening Sat May 25, 2-5pm) @ Loop Gallery (1273 Dundas St W, Toronto) Toronto artist and 4PANEL participant Larry Eisenstein (whose work was prominently featured back in CAROUSEL 27) has a new exhibit opening in Toronto, Negative Capability. Romantic poet John Keats used the term “negative capability” to describe an artist’s receptiveness to the world and its natural marvel, and the struggle of human beings

Read More