Welcome to Descant Magazine

Descant is a quarterly literary journal that showcases poetry, prose, essay, memoir and art.

Now out! Descant 160: The Hidden City

This issue of Descant explores the hidden parts of a city — both its terrain (underground rivers, back alleyways, horse palaces) and its inhabitants (an aging machine operator, a homeless father and his son, a philosophizing baker and more).

Whether it’s under a bridge, along a back alley, inside a factory, down the sewers, in a town square, at a youth centre, or in catacombs, the writers and artists in this issue of Descant uncover the many layers of a city. Get ready to explore the untold concealed corners of Italy, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Inuvik, Vietnam and more.

If interested in attending the launch event at the Handlebar, check out the event details here.

 

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Winston Collins Prize Announement, Wednesday February 20th 2013

 

The Descant Arts & Letters Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem for 2013.


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Winning poem:

“Bringing the Farmhouse Down”
By John B. Lee

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The Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem is an annual prize awarded in memory of Winston Collins, writer and enthusiastic teacher of literature at the universities of Cincinnati, Princeton and Toronto. This prize, established in 2007, perpetuates his remarkable talent for encouraging self-expression through writing. The winner receives an award of $1000 and is published in an issue of Descant.

The judges for this year’s prize, Mark Kingwell and Leanne Shapton, provided Descant with a statement describing their choice:

"Bringing the Farmhouse Down" deftly and tenderly evokes the past life of a family home with refreshingly unsentimental texture. There is a wealth of concrete detail in the description of the house’s destruction, an act evoked with precise, even blunt, language that nevertheless reveals the aura of beauty that can surround things in our tough material world: "from the peen-bruise of the punched studs / and the dry-lime fragrance / of the splintering slats." The short lines, hyphenated adjectives, incidental rhyme, and alliteration create a jangly Anglo-Saxon rhythm reminiscent of Hopkins, just as the close attention to objects and tools recalls Ted Hughes or Galway Kinnell: "in the long hall / the wicker wheelchair / winced like a toy / while the girls played / broken-legged doll." Thematically, we found the shifts in time particularly effective in executing the major conceit and house-as-memory, and acknowledging the delicate, ever-haunted structures we call consciousness and identity. The poem works like a tiny ghost story: images, voices, and children gliding in and out of its rooms.

For more information about the prize, John B. Lee and the judges click here.

 

 

Descant 159: A Winter's Guide to Melancholia Launches January 23,2013!

Descant's winter issue will be out soon! In the meantime, mark your calendars - The launch will be at No One Writes to the Colonel located at 460 College St. in Toronto, from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm. on January 23, 2013.The launch will feature Natalie Thompson, Daniel Karasik, Joshua Learn, Mark Lavorato and Bill Howell as readers.

The winter issue features a roster of 32 writers and artists from Canada and the United States, with additional submissions from France, Italy and Ireland. Touching upon sadness and grief through themes such as lust, youth and domesticity, A Winter's Guide to Melancholia is a cathartic experience perfect for the dreary winter months. In this issue, David Norman leads readers through the months just before a couple's divorce, disseminating the role of family, racial divides, and the preservation of innocence. Sandra Jensen tells the tale of grief and revolution in a war-torn land, while Hendrik Slegtenhorst and Karen Green speak of being away in foreign places.

 

For further information, please visit our Facebook listing or contact:
Vera DeWaard, managingeditor@descant.ca
Stephanie Chan, winter2012@descant.ca

Descant launches issue 158: Renovations

We are very thrilled to announce the launch of Descant 158: Renovations. The event will take place on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 from 7 to 10 PM at The Rochester (423 College Street).

Come and enjoy a free night of poetry and fiction readings, and free food! Descant 158 features new and exciting fiction, poetry, art and essays on renovations that are not limited to the home, but also extend to the text and self-identity.

Contributors Catherine Graham, Cora Siré, Jessica Parkinson, and others, will read from excerpts of their work. The event will also feature a raffle, where rafflers will have a chance to win magazine subscriptions, amazing book bundles, and much more! Pick up a copy of the Descant 158: Renovations, hot off the presses, for a discounted price (one night only)!

For further information, please contact:
Vera DeWaard, managingeditor@descant.ca
Canaan Chu, renovations@descant.ca
 
Check out the event on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/478525472172242/

Call for Submissions: Berlin Issue


“I still keep a suitcase in Berlin” - Marlene Dietrich

"It's a city that's so easy to 'get lost' in – and to 'find' oneself, too." - David Bowie, on his “Berlin Years”

Has there ever been a more protean city than Berlin? Once home to emperors and palaces, cabaret halls and seductive starlets, Berlin became a city of stones and then a city divided, only to resume its status as capital of the reunified Germany. Berlin is a city of contradictions ­— or what its current mayor Klaus Wowereit calls, “Poor, but sexy.” It is precisely Berlin’s paradoxical nature that has long held appeal for artists coming to the city in search of creative revitalization. From Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, which inspired a young David Bowie to move to the city, to Christo wrapping The Reichstag,Berlin remains a haven for those seeking the unconventional and unpredictable. In 2014, Berlin will commemorate its 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall and the reunification of the city. Descant aims to take part in this celebration by welcoming submissions of unpublished fiction, poetry, essays and art pieces that speak to the mythology, memory and identity of Berlin — in all its various incarnations.

Call to Submit!

 Cartooning Degree Zero: Descant's Graphic Literature Issue

The comic strip, the funnybook, the graphic novel -- whatever we call this melange of words and pictures, it all begins with the art of cartooning. This issue provides an opportunity to explore what cartooning looks like now, and where we find its limits. In writing that approaches the zero degree, Roland Barthes sees an “infinite freedom” shining forth, the creation of an “unexpected object” overflowing with possibilities. Can we say the same for cartooning degree zero? Contributors are encouraged to test out the affinities that exist between cartooning and poetry, comics and prose, drawing and writing. What are the stories that images tell, and what do they keep silent? What can comics recall about the past, or say about the present? What have we seen in the history of cartooning, and what can we expect for the future of the form? Descant welcomes cartooned strips, panels, and stories that address any topic and investigate the possibilities and boundaries of the medium. Traditional essays, poems, memoirs and fiction that deal in some way with comics and cartooning will also be accepted.

Submission deadline for this issue: June 7th, 2013

For more information about our submission guidelines and submitting to other issues of Descant, click here.

Descant 157 Launches June 27th

We are thrilled to announce that the Descant Arts and Letters Foundation will release its Summer 2012 issue, Summer Subversions, on June 27, 2012, doors open at 7:00pm at The Magpie, 831 Dundas St. West.

Summer Subversions brings together engaging, thought-provoking, and sometimes harrowing art, fiction, poetry, and essays that are definitely not your typical poolside reading.

For more information about the issue and the event, and see a sneak preview of the cover, take a look at our blog.

Out Now: Descant 156: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Between Loss and Recovery

With the aid of eclectic photography, prose, memoirs, essays and poetry we give you a glimpse of a country in transition, whose sanguine steps into the future are inevitably haunted by the vagaries of its past. 

The Bosnian war of the 1990s brought this small Balkan region to the attention of the international community while forcing thousands of Bosnian and Herzegovinian citizens to seek refuge in places that were often distant from their homeland, both geographically and culturally. It is unsurprising that the pieces included in this issue of Descant have been contributed by artists and writers from all around the world: by those who visited Bosnia and Herzegovina as travellers, soldiers or journalists; by the members of the Bosnian diaspora; and by those who still reside in the country. The result is a stimulating and multifaceted dialogue of perspectives that testifies to the complexity of Bosnia’s long and dramatic history. 

 

To read excerpts and the table of contents see the issue page, click here.

You can also order a copy online or find a store that carries Descant near you.

D 155: A Winter Reader, out now!

Launch: January 17th, 7:00pm at the Trane Studio (964 Bathurst St.)

Come and join the Descant team as we celebrate the launch of issue 155: A Winter Reader.

Descant is a quarterly literary magazine that showcases poetry, prose, essay, memoir and art. Our most recent issue, A Winter Reader, is an assortment of works that speak to the current season. Join us and readers Angel Beyde, Ricardo Sternberg and Rosemary Sullivan, as we escape the cold through our shared passions for good company and well-articulated ideas.

No cover. Cash bar. Complimentary hors d'euvres; full menu available for individual cravings. 

*RAFFLE*

Sporting event tickets! Autographed cookbook! Gift Certificates! Books! Subscriptions!
All proceeds go to the Descant Arts & Letters Foundation.
Made possible through the generous support of:
Ben McNally Books
Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment
Oliver and Bonacini Restaurants
Random House Canada
The Walrus

We hope to see you there!

To look at excerpts, images and the table of contents for the issue, click here.

Visit the Facebook event here

 

The CAPYBARA, a student writing anthology

Descant Arts & Letters Foundation's NOW HEAR THIS! literacy program sends professional writers into schools to conduct writing workshops with students. These workshops help develop literacy skills, cultivate talent and creativity, encourage self-expression and foster analytical skills and critical thought.

 
After a smashingly successful fifth year at NOW HEAR THIS!, we are proud to present The CAPYBARA, our latest anthology and third annual of student-written stories, poems, and personal essays documenting the success of Toronto's first-ever ongoing writers-in-schools program.
 
The CAPYBARA launched March 23rd, 2011 at the Gardiner Museum: this free event is a chance to recognize everyone's enthusiastic participation in the program, hear from writers-in-residence and students about their experiences, give kudos to those who helped make the program possible, enjoy some nibbles and generally celebrate NOW HEAR THIS!'s success.
 
$15 (including shipping) - see our online store for details.