Me, My Selfies, and II came across a TikTok recently that articulated something about my face I’d been struggling with. It was one of those videos where the speaker sits in the front seat of her car as if she’s been so overcome by an epiphany that she had to pull over… Feb 29 24February 29, 2024Article at The Walrus
I’m Haunted by the Mansions of My YouthThe first time I remember seeing a mansion, I was headed to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg with a friend assigned to me by a charity that paired adults with poor kids whose parents needed a break. I turned to this nice middle-class woman, who… Oct 31 22October 31, 2022Article at The Walrus
Me and Bridget Jones (20 Years Later)Erika Thorkelson's "Me and Bridget Jones (20 Years Later)" is one of the essays in Midlife, which is a giveaway right now! Written and published during COVID quarantine, Midlife features the collected works of former members of the Gateway, the… Jun 14 21June 14, 2021Article at 49th Shelf
Fat Shaming Shouldn’t Be Part of Our “New Normal”In the days following the shutdown, muscular bodies filled my neighbourhood park. People crab-walked across the cricket pitch, lifted enormous kettlebell weights in the grass, and turned the cages of the small baseball diamonds into chin-up bars.… Aug 25 20August 25, 2020Article at The Walrus
The Perils of Professional DressWhen I was nineteen, I worked full time as a front-desk clerk in a business hotel in downtown Edmonton. This was during a period between high school and university when I was broke and couch surfing. I had no money, no parental safety net, and no… Jul 29 19July 29, 2019Article at The Walrus
Why Wearing Lipstick Is a Small Act of Joyful ResistanceJust over a week before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the US Democratic party’s nomination for New York’s Fourteenth Congressional District on June 26, many people had one question for the twenty-eight-year-old political candidate—what was the… Oct 22 18October 22, 2018Article at The Walrus
Margaret Atwood’s Books Taught Me to Listen to Women—Now She Needs to Learn the Same ThingElectric Lit relies on contributions from our readers to help make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. Please support our work by becoming a member today, or making a one-time donation here. Writers are often great observers, but we… Jan 24 18January 24, 2018Article at Electric Literature
Off ScriptEvery summer, at the Girl Guide camp I frequented as a child in Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park, a large patch of poison ivy would grow near the communal toilets. The counsellors would warn us away from the low-lying waxy green leaves. They… Jun 23 16June 23, 2016Article at The Walrus
New WavesIn March of last year, after a violent spring storm, Sheila Williams took her long-legged Afghan hound, Saffy, out for a walk on the Wild Pacific Trail near Ucluelet, on the southwestern tip of Vancouver Island. Off the trail, at the end of an… Feb 18 13February 18, 2013Article at The Walrus
