most writers need to be read; without an audience the natural cycle of their creative process is incomplete and leaves a certain discomfort under the ribs. what if the kind of writing you do has insufficient outlets? a condition
difficult to digest.

as a collective of nine women writers, we felt hungry for a milieu where voices too infrequently (often because they do not fit into identifiable genres) be given space.

to get the range of cutting edge writing by canadian women across canada and elsewhere, we put out the call for works-in-progress by emerging to established writers of poetry,creative non-fiction and lyric prose. we planned to feature from 12-20 selections to give a substantial feel of each individual work as well as the diversity of current writing. the number and quality of manuscripts we received made it clear we would have enough material to publish several different books. from our collective’s final selection, the anthology you’re holding in your hands was edited by four of us.

an anthology of women’s writings at this stage of the game! is it necessary? ultimately that’s a question each individual reader has to answer for themselves but certainly we felt the need; the response we received indicated a resounding echo among other women writers whose manuscripts seem to have less and less of an opportunity of leaving their portfolios; women’s presses and bookshops are disappearing, yet women’s lives are blossoming with a whole new variety of expression in all the arts.

this collection of writings is filled with the feisty humour and pain of people whose history has been discounted, homelands regained, (in)flagrant odes to language and pasts usurped by the dominant culture, haunting images of the mother lost, the transparent child’s experience of the adult world; from the liturgical and the political to the lyrical and the personal.

we interacted with all these for many months and as we became increasingly familiar with them, we were delighted to watch each one find its place and the distinctive form of portfolio milieu 2004 to take shape.

Ingrid Rose, Arleen Paré, Christine Leclerc, and Morgan Chojnacki

cover features the art work of Cheryl Sourkes