It’s been called one of the greatest short stories ever written: James Joyce‘s The Dead, set on The Feast of the Epiphany, opening as Gabriel Conroy and his wife, Gretta, arrive late to his aunts’ annual Christmas party.
Well worth a timely read, or watch the very fine film adaptation (directed by John Huston and starring Anjelica Huston).
(top image: Winter Scene 1867, Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten)
NEWFOUNDLAND QUARTERLY was founded in 1901, the same year Marconi flew a 500-foot kite on Signal Hill and intercepted the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission. The second-oldest magazine in Canada, NQ began as “a literary magazine of interest to Newfoundlanders at home and abroad,” which is not far off the way it describes itself today, as “a cultural journal of Newfoundland and Labrador.” That’s a remarkable persistency of purpose over 116 years.
There are times in all our lives when perspective takes a jarring shift, sudden moments when a new truth is lit up under fluorescent, operating room-quality light, like a flashing neon sign, or a moose illuminated in headlights.
The Winter issue of NQ is full of creatures who might make you feel better about spending so much time indoors!