I've been hanging out at magazine racks the past few weeks, and for the next five days am going to be providing a review of some of Canada's best alternative literary and arts reviews.

What do these magazines have in common? While they may not have wide circulation and are found mainly in small bookstores and specialty magazine shops, they tend to be very influential within their arts communities.

First stop on our magazine rack tour is This Magazine, a lefty political magazine with an arts agenda. Now in its 33rd year of publishing, it receives some of its funding from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council and is mandated to include some fiction, poetry and arts coverage. That's perhaps why it keeps infrequent high-profile contributors like Margaret Atwood high on the masthead.

Unfortunately, this latest May-June issue doesn't have much arts coverage -- just two pages devoted to one odd piece of fiction near the back, way after page after page on the woes of socialist parties, labour groups, and journalists caught up in a fight with Conrad Black. The cover story on 'Debunking Digital Nirvana' turns out to be the transcript of a five-way conversation by a bunch of whining lefties about business controlling the Internet.

But future issues are bound to have more. This issue has a full-page ad for The Great Canadian Literary Hunt, which offers $750 prizes for fiction and poetry. Poems have to be 100 lines or shorter, and stories can be up to 5,000 words ... so check out the rules, and start scribbling, because the deadline's July 1.

This Magazine

Tomorrow, a more literary alternative to This Mag's political slant & rant…

Book Early, Book Now
Okay so this event isn't happening in September, but how often in this lifetime will you get the opportunity to have dinner with Canadian literary superstar Margaret Atwood? The event's a celebration kicking off the publication of Atwood's much anticipated new novel. At $125 a head this is a real steal. Not only do you get "herself" at the head of the table; you also get dinner, drinks AND a charitable receipt for $100. Just when you thought things couldn't get any better, all proceeds from the evening support World Literacy. The worst thing that could happen is Atwood insults or dismisses you (as is her wont, of this I know first hand), but wow talk about a story!

An Evening with Margaret Atwood
(416) 977-0008

The Book
"Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." That, according to Random House, is the opening line of Atwood's 25th book. The Blind Assassin is due in stores in early September, and there's a little preview on the Random website. The publicity bumpf says: "she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious."

The Blind Assassin tells the story of two sisters: Iris, the narrator, and Laura, who died in 1945 after driving off the bridge. Laura' story s told in a sci-fi novel within the novel. "Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience. The novel has many threads and a series of events that follow one another at a breathtaking pace."

The Blind Assassin

Art on the Internet
Tonight On the Arts' third installment of Art on the Net will be broadcast from CBC Radio One. Host Eleanor Wachtel will be speaking to a panel of artists about the challenges and wonders of working on the web. That's On the Arts at 10:05 ET

Art on the Net

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