WE’RE SEARCHING FOR NEW VOICES

From south of the border, we hear about nothing but “change” these days. Whether Americans choose Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or even John McCain as their next president in November, things are going to be very different in Washington from here on in.

What does this mean for Canada? Have we placed ourselves in opposition to the moralistic conservatism of the Bush White House for so long that adjusting to profound change in our neighbour may be quite a challenge? Will Canada too be a part of a continental wave of hope and energy, as we were during the 1960s?

The LRC (Literary Review of Canada) is on the hunt for new voices to explore these themes. Our monthly magazine showcases many of the most important fiction, non-fiction and public policy writers working in this country, names such as Lloyd Axworthy, Peter C. Newman, Margaret Atwood, David Malone, Andrew Cohen, Erna Paris, Roland Paris, Jennifer Welsh, Tom Flanagan, Janice Gross Stein, Ezra Levant, Sheema Khan, Patrick Watson, Philip Resnick, Peter Desbarats, Mark Kingwell, Desmond Morton and Conrad Black.

We will devote the coveted essay slot in our upcoming September issue to a thought-provoking new vision of Canada. We invite all interested writers to submit a 500-word abstract of their essential ideas for such an essay by April 30th and we will announce our choice at the end of May. The writer we choose will then have six weeks to produce a 3,000-word essay for a July 14th deadline.

Our only restriction: Contributors must be NEW to the LRC. If you have written a commissioned article for us before, we love you but we don’t want to hear from you for this project. The theme is change, so we’re looking for change in the voices we hear and include in the national conversation.

500-word abstracts should be submitted by April 30, 2008, by e-mail, to ed****@lr*******.com. The subject line should read “New Voices.”

For more information about the LRC, visit www.reviewcanada.ca.