TRIO #26

Friday March 13 2026

Next month I’ll be reading alongside Furqan Mohamed, Claire Foster, Quill Christie-Peters, and Claudia Dey at the launch of Toronto Review, a new digital platform dedicated to publishing fiction and literary criticism from the city and beyond. I’ve been excited by the publication rollout over the past few months, impressed by the sleek design and editorial vision, so I was flattered to be asked to contribute. If you’re in Toronto, I’d love to see you there, and if you’re not in the city, you’ll be able to read the magazine online in a matter of weeks.

A financially stable and critically engaged platform is hard for writers to find, especially in Canada, where a network of clunky bureaucracies distributes a reserve of ever-diminishing funds. Ashley Obscura, founder of Montreal’s Metatron Press, has written extensively about the topic with refreshing candour. No one gets into writing for the money, but speaking as someone who has been a part of Canada’s arts and culture ecosystem for the better part of a decade, it would be nice to feel as though it were possible to make a living from it.

The same day Toronto Review announced its launch, C Magazine announced that after more than 40 years, it’s in danger of closing its doors. C Mag, one of the oldest arts publications in Canada, was one of the first places to publish me, a sentiment echoed by writers, editors, artists, curators, and academics across the country. If you have the means, please consider donating to their fundraiser; no shade to Substack, but we need to preserve the few remaining publishing platforms operated outside of the tech oligarchy, and it would be a real shame to lose this one.

Til next time,

Cason