Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine

by Meghan Bell (Editor)

Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine celebrates the history and evolution of Canadian literature and feminism with some of the most exciting and thought-provoking fiction, poetry, and essays the magazine has published since it was founded in 1975 as Room of One's Own. This collection includes poems about men not to be fallen in love with, trans womanhood, the morning-after pill, the "mind fuck" of being raped by a romantic partner, and a tribute to the women who were murdered in the Montreal Massacre. In one story, a group of sexual assault survivors meet weekly and come up with a unique way to help police capture their assailant, while in another a dinner party turns to witty talk of racism, sexism, pornography, and time travel. One author recounts how she learned multiple languages in order to connect with her father, another reluctantly walks down the aisle in order to stay in Canada with the man she loves. For forty years, Room has created a space for diverse voices. As Amber Dawn says in her opening essay, "There is Room. We do fit."

Contributors include Carol Shields, Audrey Thomas, Marian Engel, M. NourbeSe Philip, Carmen Aguirre, Eden Robinson, Daphne Marlatt, Dorothy Livesay, Ayelet Tsabari, Ivan Coyote, Tracey Lindberg, Sina Queyras, Evelyn Lau, Jen Sookfong Lee, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, and more. With forewords by Eleanor Wachtel and Amber Dawn, interviews with four former Room editors, and an afterword by Room's current publisher and managing editor.

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

416 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2017

About the author

Meghan Bell is the author of Erase and Rewind (Bookhug, 2021), and a writer and artist based in Vancouver. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, The Tyee, Prairie Fire, Grain, Rattle, and CV2, among others. She joined the editorial board of Room Magazine in 2011, and was the magazine's publisher from 2015-2019. During this time, she co-founded the Growing Room Literary Festival and acted as the lead editor and project manager of the anthology, Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine (Caitlin Press, 2017).

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful anthology which spans across so many different years and people. I regret it took me so long to get through, but so many wonderful voices are now coursing through my mind.
Thank you to the wonderful people at Room magazine. You've done well.


I won this through a Goodreads giveaway but man am I glad I did.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Making Room was akin to travelling along the decades with so many women, and shifting with the text, from page to page, through shared experiences. This time capsule, unearthed, transforms reading into an archeological exercise. Object-works, faithfully selected, express the zeitgeist.

[Ellen]

I won this in a Goodreads First-reads giveaway...thank you!