I hate heights. They give me that wobbly feeling in my legs. The below story is from 2014 and was shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize. More than ten years ago, the first thing I’d ever really submitted anywhere. They sent the notification of the longlist in the mail (I still have that letter!),…
Fiction / Literature / Short Story / Writing
When I was in high school, I hated art. I hated it so much that I refused to take the obligatory art class during the regular year and instead chose to take it during summer. I voluntarily wanted summer school… still boggles my mind. A few of us huddled into a high school I’d never…
Fiction / Literature / Short Story / Writing
Do you ever feel like you live in an abstraction? At least you’re living a life. At least you have the chance to do something meaningful. I’d like to connect more with the writing world. I’d like to be a part of it. Tough thing to say, in some respects. I’m no success. Don’t really…
Fiction / Literature / Short Story / Writing
I’ve posted that these have been published, but I don’t know how many people subscribe to these fine literary magazines, so I thought I’d indicate what these stories are about. december Literary Magazine is an American literary journal that’s been around since 1958. The particular piece published there is called ‘Stars’. It’s an older story…
Fiction / life / Literature / Music / Short Story / Writing
Spotify has revised how I find and consume music. Once, it was listening to the radio and writing down song names. Then it was file-sharing. iTunes was a huge revolution. Spotify, though, has got it right, and it’s excellent, one particular feature in particular… A little while ago, I came across the mystical Spotify playlist…
In case anyone subscribes to December Magazine (https://decembermag.org/product/volume-35-2/), I’ve got a story in the latest edition called ‘Stars’. It’s a quasi-digital gay romance that I deeply love. December is a US-based lit magazine that has been around since the 1950’s. Also had two stories published in the latest edition of Freefall Magazine (https://freefallmagazine.ca/magazine/freefall-volume-xxxiiii-number-2/), Canada’s magazine…
Azerbaijan sits west of the Caspian Sea. Russia is above it, Iran below. To the west, Armenia. In 2021, Azerbaijani soldiers went into Armenia and started a new conflict. There is war going on, one that I didn’t know about. Canadian diplomats told me that I should stay in the capital city of Baku, on…
I’m going to Azerbaijan. It’s a country next to the Caspian Sea, bordered by Iran and Russia. People are going to talk about saving the world, also about making money. Reading slows down time, I’ve found. The clocks get slower. I think this is what they mean by relativity, and I wonder if Einstein was…
History is full of mistakes. We make errors all the time. Always have. It’s in our nature to do just that and to hopefully learn from them. Take all the mistakes humanity has made over time, and please realize that we’re still here. The mistakes are blips. They are moments in time. We get back…
‘I swim in a shark.’ That’s how this story starts. It began with that one strange line and evolved into a full narrative. What am I talking about? I have a new story published in The Bangalore Review, called ‘Dragon boy’. What is The Bangalore Review? It’s a literary journal from Bangalore,…
I’m sitting by the edge of the Grand River. When you go for really long bike rides, gravity is against you. One water bottle for every hour of the ride… but water is heavy. A bike lock. Layers of clothes because it was cold early, and as it gets warmer, you strip on the side…
Ten years ago, a song came out that has not been equalled in the decade since. In the last ten years, we’ve had a pandemic. An invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Another conflict between Israel and Palestine. We’ve had the rise of generative artificial intelligence, and we’ve learned that the climate crisis is very real.…
Writer brain dislikes sleep and loves coffee, even though writer body likes rest and is positive that caffeine is bad. What are you going to do, though? Get up, even though it’s dark, and put on your headphones and do the things that are you supposed to be doing. Make some art. Walk under starlight.…
Talking about movies released in the late 90’s is like being in the 80’s and referencing entertainment from 1960. It’s deeply weird. We’re too serious. It’s easier to give into doomscrolling and the belief that everything is bad in life, or at least getting worse, than it is to have fun. However, in the interests…
I’ll never know how to properly talk about myself, but here goes. Great thanks to Freefall Magazine, subtitled ‘Canada’s Magazine of Exquisite Writing’ (love that!) for awarding me both second and third place in their prose contest. Second place winner was ‘The Arms of Village’, a very tough story to write, and a hard one…
Trent Lewin 