It's time for another major year for Qwerty Magazine! Issue 49, the NO Issue, guest edited by Emma Rhodes, has been sent to our printing partners and will be available soon. Now that our winter issue has gone gold, so to speak, pre-orders are now live through our online storefront. We'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this issue from our editors to our contributors.
Next up is our Homerow Chapbook Series. We'll have more to announce at a later date, but we can share that the next two authors will be by Qwerty alumnus Jesse Patrick Ferguson and former Poet Laureate of Fredericton Jordan Trethewey. While we were working on the Best of Qwerty Magazine projects, we noticed Jesse's name come up multiple times as both a contributor and as a member of our masthead. Jesse's latest Qwerty appearance was actually in our 2024 issue Qwerty 48 with the poem "The Night of Bending Glass," but his involvement actually goes as far back as 2005 and issue 19! We reached out and asked if we could collect all his Qwerty contributions from over the years and publish them in a chapbook, and we're really happy to say that he said yes! So you can look forward to that collection in Spring 2025. As for Jordan, we'll be co-publishing his collaboration with the artist Jen Zedd with our friends at Gridlock Lit. When Jordan approached us with this project, we realized it would simply be too big for us to handle. But if we split it in half, it would be much more attainable. As such, Gridlock Lit will be releasing the first part in Spring 2025, and we'll be publishing the second part in the fall. We hope you look forward to reading both parts of SyncWorld later this year.
That brings us to our 50th issue. We had such big plans for our 50th issue, but sadly we've had to cancel them. But where one door closes, another opens. We're moving the plans for issue 51, the Cornerstone Issue, up to issue 50 to coincide with the Fiddlehead's 80th anniversary! We're thankful to get to work among colleagues and neighbors from several print publications in our homebase of Fredericton, New Brunswick, including the Fiddlehead, the Nashwaak Review, FEILDS, Camel, Movies In Your Head, and so many other movers in shakers big and small in Canadian literature. So to help celebrate the Fiddlehead's 80th anniversary, we're holding a call for submissions just for the people who work in the arts scenes of the Poets' Corner of Canada, Fredericton. More information can be found here: qwertymagazine.submittable.com/submit
Finally, just a quick update about our best-of project. With the new editions to our editorial staff, we're happy to announce that Qwerty Pearl: The Best of Qwerty Magazine—Part II, 2011-2025 will be co-edited by Jamie Kitts, Laura Broadbent, and Alex Prong. This project is still on track for a Winter 2026 release. (Cover image not final)
And as always, keep an eye on our socials for exciting new updates, including calls for submissions, upcoming issues, and new chapbooks. We've been posting more on BlueSky as of late: @qwertymagazine.bsky.social