What We’re Talking About in Issue 1001 (September 2025)

The complete table of contents as it appears in the September 2025 issue of Blank Spaces.

from the editor—Standing at the Threshold

shameless — What May or May Not Be True by Lucy Wilde weaves memory and uncertainty into a haunting exploration of family secrets, where the boundaries between fact and fiction blur in the shadows of grief and discovery.

Symbiosis finds Valéry Brosseau examining the delicate balance of mutual support within chronic illness, revealing how love adapts and thrives even when bodies and minds are tested by invisible battles.

William W. Chan’s Nobody, Nowhere offers a philosophical meditation on existence, questioning the very foundations of selfhood through the lens of his mother’s death and his own search for meaning.

flash fiction — Old Friend by Bronwyn Melville captures the ephemeral nature of creative passion through a meditation on loss, memory, and the spirits we coax from discarded materials.

Isobel Cunningham’s Last Move distills a lifetime of attachment into a single moment of letting go, where roots run deeper than real estate values can measure.

red solo cup — Spencer Gorham’s Spare a Trillion Dollars? careens through consciousness with manic energy, transforming mundane moments into surreal adventures that question reality’s very foundations.

Through Monstrous and Nature’s Ballroom, Renee Cronley traces the shadows that follow us from childhood, juxtaposing darkness with the golden memory of prairie summers and endless possibility.

fiction — Benjamin Rempel’s Out From The Grey Barn plunges the reader into a world where survival instincts clash with human curiosity, building tension through atmosphere and the ever-present threats of the unknown.

Stephanie Bontorin’s Inside-Out follows a young boy’s scientific curiosity about death and belonging, exploring the tender cruelty of childhood through the lens of class consciousness and maternal sacrifice.

A Good Summer by Hilary Shirra traces the fault lines of a relationship through one woman’s move to Toronto, revealing how self-deception and silence can poison even the most devoted love.

different strokes — Beverley Brenna’s Summer’s Flight showcases Saskatchewan landscapes that breathe with prairie poetry, where watercolour and acrylic capture the vastness and quiet intensity of a land that shapes both art and artist.

food of love — Through the precision of Discord at the Concerto, Laurence Lumsden transforms a concert hall into an intimate space where grief, memory, and the mathematics of musical beauty converge in the aftermath of loss.

more than words — Kristina Kasparian’s Picture Poetry reflects on how photography and writing inform each other, sharing what photography has taught her about writing and creating through an intimate essay and striking visuals.

between the lines — Gail M. Murray brings us a review of Jeremy Mercer’s Time Was Soft There: a Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare and Co., exploring how legendary bookstores become refuges for writers seeking both community and transformation.

write prompt challenge winner — Chanice Boyd presented a strong contest entry with her short fiction EchoFrame, one that the judges called “fresh” and “scary.”

final word — Bad Habits by Leah Smith offers intimate confession and the weight of unspoken truths—those moments when silence becomes its own form of communication.