As for secret laughter, one of the Anglo-Saxon world’s favourite humorists is our Stephen Leacock, master of the comic light touch, with a tinge of blackness around the edges, a little like a requiem mass card. Our own secret agent of small-town laughter. But almost no one in Canada – or anywhere else – knows how he went to his grave. It was, you see, the tradition in his family to be buried in a plain, good old Canadian pine box, but he’d bought a huge oak and brass-handled job. Heavy, heavy, heavy, and burly men carried it to the hole not knowing – no one knew – that he’d had himself cremated. They sweated and heaved under the weight but inside, having the last laugh, Leacock was only ashes in a little glass bottle cradled on a satin puff. It is the final comfort we crave, ashes on a satin puff, watched over by a scarlet man, waiting, who may be the police.

  THE CONTRIBUTORS

  “Aislin,” Mosher, Terry of Montreal has used the pen-name AISLIN for the past fifty years working as a cartoonist mainly for the Montreal Gazette. He has also freelanced for many other publications including Maclean’s, the Toronto Star, Time Magazine and the New York Times. Mosher’s latest collection, From Trudeau to Trudeau: Fifty Years of Aislin Cartooning, is his forty-ninth book. In 2012, Aislin was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame as part of the eighth Annual Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning. Along with fellow cartoonist Serge Chapleau of La Presse, Aislin received the Hyman Solo-mon Award for excellence in public policy journalism in 2015.

  Amprimoz, Alexandre was born in Rome, brought up in Gabon, and settled in Canada. He was a noted philologist, poet, critic, translator, writer and programmer, who also taught a course on Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Brock University in Ontario until his death in 2012. His books include A Season for Birds: Selected Poems by Pierre Morency (as translator), Venice at Her Mirror: Essays by Robert Marteau (as translator), and the books Nostalgies de l’ange and Too Many Popes. He was awarded the Palmes Académiques, and was nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize.

  Armstrong, Bob of Winnipeg is a speechwriter and humorist. He is the author of a comic novel about stay-at-home fathers, Dadolescence, a comedy, Noble Savage, Savage Noble, about Voltaire and Rousseau, some 1,700 speeches for Manitoba’s last four Lieutenant Governors, and 280,000 words of environmental impact reports. He sometimes posts stuff at bobarmstrong.ca.

  Atwood, Margaret of Toronto is a poet, essayist, novelist, inventor, environmental activist. She has won the Booker Prize, the Governor General’s Award twice, and has received many other awards and honorary degrees from around the world. Her books of poetry include The Journals of Susannah Moodie, Procedures for Underground, True Stories, Morning in the Burned House, and her two-volume Selected Poems. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale – the source for the U.S. television series by the same name – Alias Grace, Surfacing, The Edible Woman, Oryx and Crake, MaddAddam, Life Before Man, The Robber Bride, and Blind Assassin. Her short story collections include Bluebeard’s Egg, Good Bones, Moral Disorder and The Stone Mattress.

  Borkowski, Andrew of Toronto is a writer whose short story collection Copernicus Avenue, set in Toronto’s post-war Polish community, won the 2012 Toronto Book Award. It was also a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for short fiction. His journalism has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, TV Guide, and the Los Angeles Times.

  Boulton, Marsha of Harriston, Ontario, is the fifth woman and the first shepherd to receive the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. She began telling stories about her transition from city girl to farmer on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air. Those stories formed the backbone of the award-winning, four-book Letters from the Country series. A former Maclean’s magazine editor, her journalism has appeared in her journalism has appeared in Toronto Life, Chatelaine, Canadian Business and the Wool- growers’ Cooperative Magazine. Three anecdotal Canadian history books, headlined Just a Minute, evolved from her work on the televised Heritage Minutes. A memoir, Wally’s World, Life with Wally the Wonder Dog, has been published internationally in many languages.

  Bramer, Shannon of Toronto is a poet and playwright. Precious Energy, published this year, is her fourth collection of poetry. Her plays, Monarita, The Collectors and The Hungriest Woman in the World, have appeared in juried festivals across the country. Bramer regularly conducts poetry workshops in schools and is the editor of Think City: The Poems of Gracefield Public School. Climbing Shadows is her illustrated collection of poetry for young children.

  Callaghan, Barry of Toronto was born in that city where, in 1972, he founded the landmark literary journal, Exile, A Literary Quarterly (now ELQ magazine), and in 1975 the publishing house Exile Editions. The Afterword to this volume, “Canadian Wry,” was originally commissioned by Punch, London, in 1985 (updated for this collection). He received the inaugural W.O. Mitchell Award for “mentoring young writers and a body of work of his own.” Callaghan’s works include The Black Queen Stories, A Kiss Is Still a Kiss, Between Trains, The Hogg Poems, Hogg: The Seven Last Words, Barrelhouse Kings: A Memoir, and three volumes of his collected journalism and articles, Raise You Five, Raise You Ten and Raise You Twenty – the latter will be re-issued in 2018 as a revised edition. All the Lonely People: Collected Stories (autumn 2018) gathers the majority of his short fiction. Also in 2018 is his edited volume, What the Hand Sees, a comprehensive perspective on the life and works of internationally exhibited Canadian artist Claire Wilks.

  Morley Callaghan was born in Toronto. His earliest short stories appeared in Paris where he was an important part of the literary milieu of 1929 – the great gathering of writers in Montparnasse that included Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce. His short stories stand as classics of the form. His novels include Strange Fugitive, Such Is My Beloved, It’s Never Over, The Many Coloured Coat, More Joy in Heaven, The Loved and the Lost, A Time for Judas, Our Lady of the Snows, and the four-volume Collected Short Stories of Morley Callaghan. Father of poet, novelist, and publisher, Barry Callaghan, he died in 1990.

  Clarke, Austin is Barbadoes-born and was a long-time Toronto resident (1959 until he died in 2016). He was a novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, social activist and diplomat who won the Giller Prize for his novel, The Polished Hoe, in 2002. Among his many works are The Survivors of the Crossing, The Meeting Point, The Origin of Waves, Choosing His Coffin, Love and Sweet Food (which won the James Beard Award for Food Writing), There Are No Elders, The Prime Minister, Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack, Pig Tail’n Breadfruit, More (which won the City of Toronto Book Award), and They Never Told Me. He also received the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the W.O. Mitchell Award.

  Dandurand, Anne of Montreal says she was born in good company, with her twin sister Claire Dé. Having worked as an actress, journalist, union activist and screenwriter, she is also the author of eight books of short stories and novels, some translated. For past twenty years she has also been a sculptor.

  Dé, Claire of Montreal was born in the good company of her twin sister, Anne Dandurand. She has been a stage set and costume designer, playwright, short story writer of the collection Desire as Natural Disaster, literary translator, freelance magazine writer, and an author for many other sources of pay-for-hire writings. Being at a loss for numbers and business, she has managed to stay poor all the while, but had fun all the way.

  Dewar, James of Port Perry, Ontario, writes short fiction and poetry and has been published in several anthologies and literary journals. He is author of The Garden in the Machine. He teaches fiction and poetry workshops throughout the Metropolitan Toronto area and internationally via www.inkslingers.ca, and is host of the reading series, Hot-Sauced Words.

  Feldman, Jamie of Alberta Bridge, Nova Scotia, received her M.Phil in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Her fiction has appeared in Canadian Stories, The Big Jewel, Every Day Fiction, and Silver Birch Press’ Alice in Wonderland Anthology, among others. Her plays have been performed internationally at the Atlantic Fringe, King’s Theatre Annapolis Royal, and Short+Sweet: Sydney/AU Festival. She is a past writer in residence in Flojtstunga, Iceland.

  Ferron, Jacques, after a brief spell as a young man in the Canadian Army, practiced as a country physician in the Gaspé, Quebec. In 1948, he settled in Montreal, establishing a medical consulting office on the city’s South Shore. Ferron, from this base, led a very public life, contributing to medical and literary journals while taking an active part in politics. In 1963 he founded his own party, the Rhinoceros Party, designed for the purpose of satirizing the federal political system (some time or other in the ’70s, he appointed Barry Callaghan as the English leader for a term of one year – “a position in which he would have nothing to do and no one to speak to”). As a playwright and essayist, novelist and short story writer, Ferron took on in his fiction the multifaceted aspects of his cultural heritage. His first collection, Contes du pays incertain, won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1962. In 1977, the Quebec government awarded him the Prix Athanase-David, and he was named an honorary member of the Union des écrivains québécois in 1981. The best of his short fiction is available in Tales from an Uncertain Country and Other Stories, translated by Betty Bednarski, herself a prize-winning translator. Ferron died in 1985.

  Gervais, Marty of Windsor, Ontario, is author of numerous books of poetry and history. At the time of publication, he is the Poet Laureate of the City of Windsor, Ontario. He has been awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal for contributions to the community, is a professor of publishing at the University of Windsor, and is the publisher of Black Moss Press. His works include, A Show of Hands; Boxing on the Border, From America Sent: Letters to Henry Miller, To Be Now: Selected Poems, Afternoon with the Devil: Growing Up Catholic in a Border Town, and The Rum-Runners.

  Gluckman, Darren of Toronto placed third in the Toronto Star’s 1996 short story contest and in 1999 published a collection of stories, The Weight of the World, which was shortlisted for the Upper Canada Brewing Company Writer’s Craft Award. He has written a screenplay, numerous magazine profiles, while also reviewing scripts for the CBC’s movies&miniseries department. Latterly, he has worked as a city prosecutor, employment lawyer, and as a policy advisor for the provincial government.

  Goldstein, Jonathan was the host and creator of Wiretap which ran on the CBC for eleven years. His new podcast, Heavyweight, has been listed as one of the best of 2016 by Itunes, The Atlantic Monthly, The Guardian and other publications. He’s the author of several books, including a novel, memoir and collection of short stories.

  Hayward, Steven of Colorado Springs, Colorado was born in Toronto and is the author of two novels, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke (which won the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy, 2006), Don’t Be Afraid, the short story collection Buddah Stevens and other stories – which won the Upper Canada Writers’ Craft Award in 2001 – and most recently, To Dance to the Beginning of the World: Stories. He holds a doctorate from York University in Shakespeare and Literary Theory, and currently teaches creative writing at Colorado College in the United States.

  Maheux-Forcher, Louise was born in Montreal in 1929. Maheux-Forcier studied music in Quebec and Paris before attending the University of Montreal. In 1959, she turned from a career in music to writing, and produced five novels: Amadou, L’Etejoyeuse, Une forget pour Zoe, Paroles et music, and Appasionata. “The Carnation” is taken from a story collection, En routes lettres.

  Marshall, Helen of Cambridge, England, is a lecturer in Creative Writing and Publishing at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. Her first collection of fiction, Hair Side, Flesh Side won the Sydney J. Bounds Award in 2013, and Gifts for the One Who Comes After, her second collection, won the World Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award in 2015. In 2016, she won the $5,000 Carter V. Cooper Award for Best Short Story by a writer at any career point (that story, plus a previous shortlisted story while an emerging writer, appeared in Exile Editions’ annual CVC anthology Series).

  McFadden, David of Toronto was born in Hamilton, Ontario and is a poet, fiction writer, and travel writer. He has served as an editor with Coach House Press. His numerous books include What’s the Score? – which won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2013 – A Knight in Dried Plums, On the Road Again, The Art of Darkness, Why Are You Sad? Intense Pleasure, A New Romance, and The Poet’s Progress.

  Miscione, Christine of Hamilton, Ontario, is a fiction writer, with an MA in English Literature from Queen’s University. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals. In 2012, her short story “Skin, Just” won the $10,000 Carter V. Cooper Award for Best Short Story by an emerging writer. Her first collection of short stories, Auxilliary Skins, appeared in 2013, and went on to win the ReLit Award. She followed that with a novel, Carafola.

  Morin, Gustave says he is a werewolf and a ferris wheel, the demon-barber of concrete in Canada, the maker of a “few poetry,” and the author of a number of books in and out of print, including The Etcetera Barbecue and A Penny Dreadful.

  Paterson, Mark of Lorraine, Quebec, is the author of the short story collections, A Finely Tuned Apathy Machine and Other People’s Showers. He is a past winner of Geist magazine’s Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest and the 3Macs carte blanche Prize.

  Prussky, Gail of Mono Mills, Ontario, says that after leading an “average” unassuming life for some years topped off by a decade as a Toronto hard-drug addiction therapist, she moved from the city to retire in the country where she suddenly began to draw, paint and write. She has exhibited at several galleries in recent years. Her first book of drawings, poems and stories, Broken Balloons, with an introduction by David Cronenberg, was published in 2016.

  Quarrington, Paul, born and raised in Toronto, was a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator best known for his novels King Leary, Whale Music, Galveston, and The Ravine. He won the Stephen Leacock Award in 1988 and the Governor General’s Award in 1989. He died in 2011.

  Rogers, Linda of Victoria, B.C. is a broadcaster, teacher, journalist, poet, novelist and songwriter. She has received the Stephen Leaock Poetry Prize, the Reuben Roise Poetry Prize (Israel), the Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry, the Hawthorne Prize, the Saltwater Festival Prize, the People’s Poetry Prize, and most recently was co-winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize. Her works include Queens of the Next Hot Star, Singing Rib, Woman at Mile Zero, Letters from the Doll Hospital, The Empress Letters, Muscle Memory and Homing: New and Selected Poems, and most recently, the novel, Bozuk.

  Rooke, Leon of Toronto, was born and raised in Roanoake Rapids, Virginia and after a time as a Freedom Rider and a stint in the US military he came to Canada where he has distinguished himself as a prolific author. His numerous novels and short story collections include Fat Woman, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, The Birth Control King of Upper Volta, Shakespeare’s Dog, which won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, A Bolt of White Cloth, Sing Me No Love Songs I Say You No Prayers, Oh! Twenty-Seven Stories, Hitting the Charts: Selected Stories, Fabulous Fictions & Peculiar Practices and Wide World in Celebration and Sorrow. His other awards include the Canada-Australia prize, the W.O. Mitchell Award, the CBC Fiction Award, and two ReLit Awards.

  Roorda, Julie of Toronto is the author of the novel A Thousand Consolations, as well as Courage Underground, The Eleventh Toe, Floating Bodies, Naked in the Sanctuary, and Wings of a Bee. Her story, “How to Tell If Your Frog Is Dead,” was in-cluded in the 2014 Journey Prize Anthology.

  Rosenblatt, Joe was born in Toronto, but has lived in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, for decades. He has written more than twenty books of poetry, several autobiographical works, and a novel. His Topsoil won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. He is also a gallery-exhibited artist – many of his works are in permanent collections in public galleries and academic institutions in Canada. His books include Bumblebee Dithyramb, The Sleeping Lady (Sonnets), Poetry Hotel: Selected, The Voluptuous Gardener, Parrot Fever, The Lunatic Muse, Escape from the Glue Factory, The Joe Rosenblatt Reader, Snake City, and Hoggwash: The Callaghan and Rosenblatt Epistolary Convergence.

  Sawai, Gloria was born in Minnesota, grew up in Canada, and was educated in Alberta and Minnesota before settling in Canada where she taught at Grant MacEwen College in Edmonton. Her play for young people, Neighbour, was published in 1981. She won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction for A Song of Nettie Johnson (2000). She died in 2011.

  Shaw, Matt of Toronto was raised in southwestern Ontario and lives in Toronto. He received the Journey Prize for short fiction in 2005, and is the author of a collection of short stories, The Obvious Child. With Barry Callaghan, he edited and introduced an anthology of Toronto tales, The Stories That Are Great Within Us.