Riddle Fence

10/02/2025

Come see us in Halifax! We'll be at Booktoberfest on October 11th, with magazines, books, and merch galore! Halifax Central Library, Oct 11, 11-3pm.

09/29/2025

Still a few spaces left in this graphic novel workshop with the amazing Arizona O'Neill! Wednesday October 15, 7-9pm. Registration is open now!

Wednesday, October 15 Writing a Graphic Novel: From Idea to Published Book Ever dreamed of turning your ideas into a graphic novel, but don’t know where to start? This lively workshop with illustrator and graphic novelist Arizona O’Neill will take you through the entire process, from that first ...

09/28/2025

We're back for Day 2! Come see us at Word on the Street Toronto all day today, 10am-5pm.

09/27/2025

Toronto friends! Come see us all weekend at Word on the Street! Find us in Magazine Mews, across from the Walrus.

09/18/2025

Did I say that's not all?? That's not all!

WORKSHOP: Writing From Life with Heather O’Neill
Wednesday, October 15, 7pm

These workshops are FULLY SUBSIDIZED, aka FREE. But you do need to register, and spaces are limited!

TO REGISTER:
*Send a one-page sample of your work to [email protected] by October 3, 2025.*

Full details below, or follow this link:
https://riddlefence.com/event/writing-from-life-with-heather-oneill/

***
Writing from Life, with Heather O'Neill

In this workshop, we will examine the ways in which a writer draws from their own lived experience and family history to create both fiction and non-fiction. We will look at creating a persona and a voice that is unique to one’s own experience. We will learn to embrace secrets and shame. It is when we are true to ourselves that our monsters and angels inhabit the page!

Wednesday, October 15, 7-9pm

REGISTRATION: This workshop is free of charge, but participation is limited. To apply for a spot, send a one-page sample of your work to: [email protected]

Registration Deadline: October 3, 2025

Riddle Fence workshops are subsidized by the Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach Program.


HEATHER O’NEILL is a novelist, short-story writer, and essayist. Her most recent novel is The Capital of Dreams. Her previous works include When We Lost Our Heads, which was a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal; The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads; and Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives there today.

Wednesday, October 15 Writing From Life with Heather O’Neill In this workshop, we will examine the ways in which a writer draws from their own lived experience and family history to create both fiction and non-fiction. We will look at creating a persona and a voice that is unique to one’s own ex...

09/18/2025

But that's not all! We're also hosting TWO amazing workshops with our October Visiting Writers: First up, Writing a Graphic Novel with Arizona O'Neill

These workshops are FULLY SUBSIDIZED, aka FREE. But you do need to register, and spaces are limited!

TO REGISTER:

*Send a one-page sample of your work to [email protected] by October 3, 2025.*

Full details below, or follow this link: https://riddlefence.com/event/writing-a-graphic-novel-from-idea-to-published-book-with-arizona-oneill/

***

Wednesday, October 15. -- 7pm

Writing a Graphic Novel: From Idea to Published Book

Ever dreamed of turning your ideas into a graphic novel, but don’t know where to start? This lively workshop with illustrator and graphic novelist Arizona O’Neill will take you through the entire process, from that first spark of inspiration to holding a finished book in your hands.

You’ll learn how to conquer the blank page, build momentum, and stay motivated through the long haul of writing and drawing your story. Arizona will share her own process, including live walkthroughs of her Photoshop files, and reveal time-saving tricks to make creating your comic smoother and less stressful. Bring your questions!

Photoshop or Procreate experience is helpful but not required — just bring your ideas and creativity!


Wednesday, October 15, 7-9 pm

REGISTRATION: This workshop is free of charge, but participation is limited. To apply for a spot, send a one-page sample of your work to: [email protected]

Registration Deadline: October 3, 2025



Riddle Fence workshops are subsidized by the Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach Program.


Arizona O’Neill is a Montreal author and illustrator. She is the illustrator of Nelly Arcan’s L’enfant dans le miroir and Heather O’Neill’s Valentine in Montreal. Her comics have appeared in Hazlitt, Exclaim!, Canadian Geographic, and the Montreal Gazette. She has created animated videos for many outlets, including CBC. Her debut graphic novel Opioids and Organs is coming out May 2026 with Drawn & Quarterly.

Wednesday, October 15 Writing a Graphic Novel: From Idea to Published Book Ever dreamed of turning your ideas into a graphic novel, but don’t know where to start? This lively workshop with illustrator and graphic novelist Arizona O’Neill will take you through the entire process, from that first ...

08/29/2025

It's Back to School weekend! You *probably* need something cool to wear, right? You **probably** want to represent your fave lit magazine, riiiiiiighhhhhtttt???? Riddle Fence got you covered with these brand! new! t-shirts!

Design by our fave, Mollie Cronin -- available in a range of sizes. Come get 'em!

https://riddlefence.square.site/product/t-shirt-riddle-fence-by-mollie-cronin/7E6M2WY4MYCW3YT4PFINB6VM?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=LKSUJNCK4PBYX6QU6GPKMXVM

08/21/2025

Say it isn't so! Where did the summer go????
This Saturday is our very last day for the 2025 Riddle Fence Pop-Up!
Come say goodbye the only way we know how -- with a SALE!
20% ALL books in store -- one day only, Saturday August 23, 10-6
You'll find us at 100 Duckworth St. in St. John's.

08/02/2025

Just 3 spots left in tomorrow's IMPROV FOR WRITERS workshop! If you've been fence-sitting, don't delay -- register here:

https://riddlefence.square.site/product/improv-for-writers-with-dana-puddicombe/Z7JI5HNDM4S2F6P6QBJ2EFVP

Improv For Writers with Dana Puddicombe Sunday, August 3 2-5pm $20 Pre-registration is required. Register here! Improv For Writers has been subsidized by the Public Outreach program at the Canada Council for the Arts, so we are able to offer it for a low cost. Registration is capped at 15 participan...

08/01/2025

Check out our digital features for Issue 55! It’s a special issue featuring art work from the Bonavista Biennale, writing about the artists, and stories on the theme Ties that Bind, our take on the BB theme this year: String Games.

Read Eva Crocker’s gorgeous essay “Intimacy and Isolation,” about artists Inuuteq Storch and Ethan Murphy at riddlefence.com/read/features

To read the full issue, get a Riddle Fence subscription on our website, riddlefence.com 🙂

Cover art: Inuuteq Storch, Soon Will Summer Be Over (2023), photograph. Image courtesy of the artist and Wilson Saplana Gallery.
Cover design by Graham Blair.

Eva Crocker is the author of two novels, All I Ask, and Back in the Land of the Living, and the short story collection Barrelling Forward. Her new short story collection Bargain Bargain Bargain will be published by McCelland and Stewart in 2026. She is a PhD Candidate in the Interdisciplinary Humanities program at Concordia University.

Inuuteq Storch lives and works in Greenland. He is a graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York and of Fatamorgana school of photography in Copenhagen. Inuuteq’s work is wide in genres (photography and archival work and methods) but the content centres on the identity of being from Greenland.

07/25/2025

IMPROV FOR WRITERS!

Join actor/writer/director Dana Puddicombe for this 3 hour workshop, designed to get you out of your head -- and into your writing!

August 3
2-5 pm
LSPU Hall (Cox and Palmer Second Space)

Comfort with improvisation is an asset to any writer, whether you ever step foot on stage or focus squarely on the page. Tools developed through improv exploration can help writers create characters and flesh out scenes, but the basic values of improv can also set writers free in moments when they are feeling less than inspired.

For full details and to register:

Improv For Writers with Dana Puddicombe Sunday, August 3 2-5pm $20 Pre-registration is required. Register here! Improv For Writers has been subsidized by the Public Outreach program at the Canada Council for the Arts, so we are able to offer it for a low cost. Registration is capped at 15 participan...