In Issue 71, Casper Orr interviews Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross, and Sara Black McCulloch interviews Michael DeForge. ex-puritan.ca/issue-71-fal...

The hybrid/experimental section of our Fall 2025 issue features "Queer Dance", a performance by Charlie Petch (with ASL interpretation by Gaitrie Persaud/Phoenix The Fire), as well as "music to watch boys to", a narrative video collage by William Dao: ex-puritan.ca/issue-71-fal...

Our fall 2025 issue features short fiction from Marcel Goh, Danila Botha, and Gary Barwin: ex-puritan.ca/issue-71-fal...

Issue 71 features essays from Hannah Keziah Agustin and Adam Arca: ex-puritan.ca/issue-71-fal...

In his introductory essay to the 2025 Austin Clarke Prize for Literary Excellence, Matthew Monrose excavates the contradictions of Austin Clarke and bears down on what we can learn from his refusal to "stop scratching." ex-puritan.ca/dont-scratch...

For anyone out there who’s still holding on to autumn despite the encroachment of our winter celebrations, I’ve got a new poem published in @ex-puritan.bsky.social’s Fall Issue. Diolch to editor Sanna Wani for choosing it! ex-puritan.ca/autumn-as-a-...

"I imagine our faces shining, spreading luminous like the sun in that clearing until the light is all I can see—light that has been there all along..." I can't say enough how incredible this story by Madeeha Hashmi is. Make time for it today! @ex-puritan.bsky.social ex-puritan.ca/thousands-of...

for @ex-puritan.bsky.social, I spoke with @farahghafoor.bsky.social about her debut SHADOW PRICE! ex-puritan.ca/what-we-lose...

Issue 71 features poems from Yan Zhang, Maryam Ghafoor, @rhysowainwilliams.bsky.social, E. M. Palitha Edirisooriya (translated by samodH Porawagamage & Kasun Pathirage), Drew McEwan, and Nicole Boyce. You can read their work at ex-puritan.ca/issue-71-fal...

Our Fall 2025 issue features reviews of jaz papadopoulos' "i feel that way too" and Mikhail Iossel's "Sentence", written by Janet Pollock Millar and Pamela Hensley respectively: ex-puritan.ca#reviews

Adam Arca's poem "I had to get out" is the 2025 Poetry Runner-Up for the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence: ex-puritan.ca/i-had-to-get...

kailash srinivasan's story "You, like" is the 2025 Fiction Runner-Up for the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence: ex-puritan.ca/you-like

Hadiyyah Kuma's poem "WALTER" is the 2025 Poetry Winner of the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence: ex-puritan.ca/walter

Madeeha Hashmi's story "Thousands of Longings Like These" is the 2025 Fiction Winner of the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence: ex-puritan.ca/thousands-of...

We’re excited to release Issue 71: Fall 2025! Get cozy with vibrant new fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews, along with the winning pieces of the 2025 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence:

14/27... Also at the @ex-puritan.bsky.social is this short story by D.F. McCourt: ex-puritan.ca/one-way-out (It’s cool how many of the Best Canadian Stories writers are in The Ex-Puritan.) #AmReading 💙📚 #BookSky #fiction

We're thrilled to share the fiction shortlist for the 2025 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence! These pieces were chosen by this year’s fiction judge, Iryn Tushabe.
Congratulations to the shortlisted writers, and stay tuned for the winner, whose poem will be published in our upcoming issue.

We're thrilled to share the poetry shortlist for the 2025 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence! These pieces were chosen by this year’s poetry judge, Faith Arkorful.
Congratulations to the shortlisted writers, and stay tuned for the winner, whose poem will be published in our upcoming issue.

Our new special issue, Animalia (guest edited by @sannawani), features fiction from Cooper Skjeie, Ai Li Feng, and Conyer Clayton. Read their work now: ex-puritan.ca/animalia#fic...

"The city writhes with the contradictions of human rapacity." –Anupa Mistry's essay "Eastbound", from our Animalia special issue: ex-puritan.ca/eastbound

Our 2025 special issue, Animalia, features new poetry from Terrence Abrahams, @summ.bsky.social, Javeria Hasnain, EJ Kneifel, Elizabeth Mudenyo, Bahar Orang, @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social, and Sennah Yee. Their work, and the rest of the issue, is live now:

"Poets love birds." So says @sannawani.bsky.social's editor's note ("Marginalia: Cento as Editor’s Note") for our 2025 special issue, Animalia. Did the poets (and the fiction writers and essayists) prove her right? Find out now— the issue is live: ex-puritan.ca/animalia

The Ex-Puritan is proud to introduce our new Poetry Editor, Sanna Wani (@sannawani.bsky.social)! Sanna Wani is a Kashmiri writer, editor and translator based in Toronto. She is the author of My Grief, the Sun (House of Anansi, 2022), winner of the 2023 Trillium Award for Poetry.

“When he looked in the mirror all he could see was the vague whiteness of her body beside him, her pale skin glowing a little in the dark.” –@elliottgish.bsky.social, from "In Glass" ex-puritan.ca/in-glass

“Beyond the trees lay an ocean of rubble, as though a giant had sneezed and their small corner of the world had come tumbling down.” –Joyce Li, from "The Transmigration of Rabbits" ex-puritan.ca/the-transmig...

“There were five weeks left of camp, 35 sun-drenched days and moon-spilled nights, and we weren’t going to waste a single one of them.” –Aaron Kreuter, from "Shimon's Trial": ex-puritan.ca/shimons-trial

Jody Chan reviews Amy Ching-Yan Lam's Property Journal in Issue 70 of The Ex-Puritan: ex-puritan.ca/a-many-layer...

@yukondawn.bsky.social reviews Zane Koss's Country Music in Issue 70 of The Ex-Puritan: ex-puritan.ca/story-as-ele...

“I’ve been collecting multiplicities, chucking light into myself to see what catches fire” –from "Everyone is Sleeping", one of Ezra M. Serra's two poems in Issue 70: ex-puritan.ca/everyone-is-...

“If there is no friction / the meteor is invisible” –@raoulfernandes.bsky.social, from the poem "Strike Anywhere": ex-puritan.ca/strike-anywh...

“Notes on contributor: lives with his wife in the traditional territory of white sheets and little apples, explores connection to land through beadwork, writing.” –Sadie McCarney, from "Alterbiographies": ex-puritan.ca/from-alterbi...

“I live in a house of almost / that is not mine.” –Stella Wong, from the poem "Complex conjugates": ex-puritan.ca/complex-conj...

"This pregnancy, this nine-month prevention, teaches me that getting to the heart of anything is drifting there, when all time does is mimic itself and there is always something you are after." –Alexandra McKay, "Water Bird" ex-puritan.ca/water-bird

"In late February, I was heading towards Museum Station when I noticed that someone had spray painted an 'r' over the 'Welcome to Queen's Park' sign to read 'Welcome to Queer's Park.' Huh, I thought. Someone said the quiet part out loud."–Vivian Zhi, from "Queer's Park": ex-puritan.ca/queers-park

In Issue 70 of The Ex-Puritan, Katherine Abbass interviews Elise Levine about her newest collection, Big of You: ex-puritan.ca/a-not-so-sec...

🚨New Raoul Fernandes Poem Alert! New Raoul Fernandes Poem Alert! This is not a drill! Report to your reading stations immediately! New Raoul Fernandes Poem Alert!🚨 @raoulfernandes.bsky.social @ex-puritan.bsky.social ex-puritan.ca/strike-anywh...

The 2025 Austin Clarke Prize is open for submissions! This year's prize will be judged by Iryn Tushabe (fiction) & Faith Arkorful (poetry). To learn more & submit your work: ex-puritan.ca/news/the-202...

Announcing our Summer 2025 issue! These works pair well with a hammock, a patio, or the comfort of your air conditioning. Watch this space for contributor features to come, but the full issue is live & ready for your enjoyment: ex-puritan.ca/issue-70-sum...

“As genocide is perpetrated in Palestine, as climate disaster and late-stage capitalism escalate, as fascist movements gain power, the poems question what it could look like to build a world worth living in.” -Amanda Proctor reviews Natalie Lim's Elegy for Opportunity: ex-puritan.ca/im-not-leavi...

“i wish i could have this forever / you can – he whispers. knowing every dream has it’s patron” –Cassandra Myers, "Waterstrider's Honeymoon Cruise" in Issue 69: ex-puritan.ca/waterstrider...

"With this commitment to normalcy in mind I have continued to go on dates with people who I meet on the apps, the men and women whom the supposedly-complex-but-ultimately-middling algorithms present me as suitable matches." -Nour Abi-Nakhoul, from "Marmot": ex-puritan.ca/marmot

“I learn about my father by reading the obituary, the one hosted on the website for a funeral home in Thunder Bay. His passing creates what I’ve always wanted to uncover: a record. A bit of marrow left inside the bone.” -Brit Gillman, from "Before We Begin": ex-puritan.ca/before-we-be...

"Historical fiction is not about faithfully transcribing facts from the past so much as it is about relating themes from the past that are still relevant to the world today." -Zilla Jones, in conversation with Tamara Jong. Read now in The Ex-Puritan Issue 69: ex-puritan.ca/wrestling-wi...

"as if everything else were an origin story / as if the sun ate up each dawn" begins Ernest Ohia's poem "plot in which you lived..." from Issue 69: ex-puritan.ca/plot-in-whic...

@MiriamRicher.bsky.social reviews Dead Writers, a new fiction project from Jean Marc Ah-Sen, Michael LaPointe, Cassidy McFadzean, and Naben Ruthnum, which Richer calls "a series of literary case studies in the lies we tell ourselves in order to go on living": ex-puritan.ca/dark-entries...

"Wandering to a Roman shield, Matthew chews over one of his favourite ideas: that throughout history, everyone on both sides thought they were the good guy." –Glenn Clifton, "What You Are Looking For Is What Is Looking", in Issue 69: ex-puritan.ca/what-you-are...

"Doctor pries off the skull cap. Reaches / into the cavity, cradling the cleaved / cerebrum. Can he feel the weight / of its memories?" –Sally O'Keeffe, "The Provincial Lunatic Asylum (1850s)", from Issue 69: ex-puritan.ca/the-provinci...

"His death was strange enough to be buried. And so it was." Play Mikaela Toone's retro-styled narrative video game (on desktop) now: ex-puritan.ca/dontsavesam

In Issue 69, Summer Farah interviews Farah Ghafoor and they discuss the risks of speaking up, the role of a poet, and how "the best things in life are a little bit hard": ex-puritan.ca/what-we-lose...

"The protagonists shift but maintain an integrity of voice: elegant, incisive, dry, witty." – @sannawani.bsky.social reviews @shashibhat.bsky.social's Death by a Thousand Cuts: ex-puritan.ca/futility-and...