On March 30th, 2023, White Wall Review proudly launched its 51st print issue at the Burdock Brewery Music Hall. The product of nearly a year of production, planning and collaboration amongst the White Wall Review team, the launch ended up being a successful sold-out event, packed with students from the English Department and the literary community beyond. Issue #51 – which is now in bookstores across Canada — and its launch was generously supported by Penguin Random House of Canada and TMU’s Faculty of Arts. 

The WWR team would like to thank the diverse writers who treated us to readings of their work. These took the form of “literary trailers,” in which the writers presented a shorter section of their larger piece featured within issue 51.

Special thanks goes out to: 

• Ruth Panofsky, a poet and Professor of English at TMU, who read a selection of poems from her newest collection, Bring Them Forth. 
• Jennifer Qu, a Chinese-Canadian photographer based in Toronto, Canada, whose photo-series Dear  grapples with her experiences navigating the relationship between her cultural heritage and the country where she grew up.
• Ross Hutchison, a graduate student in the Literatures of Modernity program at TMU, who read a section of his short story titled “White Rabbit.” 
• Matthew Hanick, a queer poet, who read a selection of his poems.
• Alina Khawaja, a writer who finds inspiration as part of the Pakistani diaspora, who read a section of her piece “The Partition of the Gerrard India Bazaar.” 
• Thomas Cappadocia, a TMU student, writer, and artist, who read a section from “Lost in Space.” 

Each of the readers brought their own unique literary voice, displaying the kind of honest literary expression that WWR is proud to promote and uplift. Each has our deepest thanks for their contributions. We also wish to thank Dean of Arts Dr. Pam Sugiman, and The Department of English Chairs present and past, Dr. Andrew O’Malley and Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy. 

Hosted by Dr. Lauren Kirshner, WWR’s faculty editor, WWR’s 2022 and 2023 editors respectively, Alexander MacIsaac and Christina McCallum, the launch brought together attendees ranging from TMU undergraduate and grad students, English faculty, White Wall Review staff, other TMU community members, and community members from Toronto at large. Bringing together such a vibrant group of attendees–WWR’s extended community–is something that the journal is proud to do. Vibrancy, diversity and collaboration are all attributes that rest at the core of WWR’s values, and being able to bring those values to our hosted events is of the utmost importance to us. 

We’re also very proud to be a hub for experiential learning, something that TMU is known for. Each year, 30-40 students work directly on the magazine, gaining skills in all facets of the publishing process from editing to interviewing to website management to promoting, and engaging with the broader literary community.  While the polished final product doesn’t show the work that went into it, the WWR team spent almost a year behind-the-scenes creating what we hope is a cohesive and thought-provoking publication. Developing our skills is one of the most rewarding aspects of working on WWR, and some of the pieces in issue 41  were also written by students, and began in creative writing classes in the Department of English. 

In particular, White Wall Review would like to thank its editors, Trevor Wilkes, Joban Sihota and Alicia Beggs-Holder for co-hosting the event, as well as Logan Donoghue and Jillian Vandervoort for managing the sales table. Working with WWR gives TMU students the opportunity to harness their professional  and collaborative skills, but don’t take our word for it! We asked some members of the WWR team what they have learned during their time in the journal–check out their comments below: 

• “As the managing editor of White Wall Review, I’ve learned how to keep multiple different projects and committees running, having to manage my time while functioning as the first-line problem solver for the entire journal. Also, planning and running our most recent launch event proved a challenging but satisfying task, and has given me a great appreciation for the work that event planners do!” -Alex MacIsaac, 2023 Managing Editor
• “During my time as the poetry editor at White Wall Review, I’ve learned what it means to maintain and preserve a literary institution and how to approach poetry, editing and publishing holistically. Learning from and listening to a wide range of voices will carry into my post-graduate education in library sciences.” -Trevor Wilkes, Poetry Editor
• Being the Managing Editor at WWR gave me invaluable experience developing publishing schedules, copyediting, curating creative content, and leading a team of fantastic editors. Having the opportunity to make editorial decisions in that setting gave me the confidence to continue pursuing a creative path. By far the most gratifying part was seeing all of our writers’ talents celebrated at the print issue launch!” -Christina McCallum, 2022 Managing Editor
• “White Wall Review has helped me hone my skills as a writer and editor, and given me a place to publish my writing and build my portfolio. It has also given me the opportunity to network with publishing houses and writers in a professional setting.” -Faye Hamidivi, Reviews Editor

Lastly, we’d like to thank our readers–White Wall Review would be nothing without the wonderful folks who support us and read our published content.

White Wall Review is the nationally distributed journal of creative writing in the Department of English. Since 1976 we’ve published emerging and established writers in an online and print edition sold in bookstores across Canada.