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The Walrus

short fiction

Fiction

The Decade in Fiction

December 27, 2019February 6, 2020 - by The Walrus Staff

From foot fetishes to the perils of poetic success this is the fiction that helped define Canada

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Illustration by Kellen Hatanaka
April 2019 / Fiction

Childhood

March 26, 2019March 27, 2020 - by David Bezmozgis

Mark didn’t know what to make of his son—he didn’t seem like an “ordinary” kid

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Fiction / October 2018

Split Tooth

September 18, 2018March 31, 2020 - by Tanya Tagaq

We pile our hair as high as it will go, even though the wind destroys our hairdos to the point that every time we come in from outside, the girls’ bathroom is a haze of Final Net

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A women sticking her face in a flower
Fiction / July/August 2018

The Second Coming of the Plants

July 20, 2018March 31, 2020 - by Zsuzsi Gartner

Hear the piercing chorus of the cacti, the beat boxing of the giant redwoods. This is our lullaby for you, sprouts, and only you

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December 2017 / Fiction

The Queen of Zilch

December 30, 2017April 2, 2020 - by Geneviève Pettersen

My dad had come downstairs that morning to warn me not to wear anything crazy at the party or do my face up like a drag queen

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Illustration by Lynn Scurfield
Fiction / July/August 2017

Boat Trouble

June 23, 2017April 5, 2020 - by Susan Swan

There was no moon the night they ran into boat trouble. The delicate crescent had set at five minutes to eleven while they drove up the lonely northern highway. The …

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illustration of two children looking into a cellar
Fiction / July/August 2017

In the Palace of Cats

June 23, 2017April 5, 2020 - by C.P. Boyko

Hillary was weeding the flower bed, and questioning the weediness of weeds, some of which were just as beautiful as any flower, when an urgent message reached her from the …

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An illustration of a man standing in front of a burning building
Fiction / May 2017

My Pleasure

April 14, 2017April 3, 2020 - by Alix Hawley

The McDonald’s had been there for decades, built in sunnier days, but it couldn’t last

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Illustration by Kenny Park
Fiction / January/February 2017

An Occurrence on the Beach at Varosha

December 16, 2016April 7, 2020 - by Steven Heighton

The evening’s last light has drained out of the sky behind the procession of dead hotels lining the beach. Up to twenty storeys high, they were built so close together …

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December 2016 / Fiction

A System from the North

November 18, 2016April 2, 2020 - by Alix Ohlin

For losing a child, she knew she would be fired. She had plenty of experience with fireable offences

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Our Latest Issue

Cover of the July/August issue of The Walrus magazine. July/August 2022
Our Summer Reading double issue, featuring fiction from Ian Williams, Sarah Totton, and Jay Teitel and poetry from Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin, Susan Musgrave, and Terese Mason Pierre.

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​​The Walrus is located within the bounds of Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit. This land is also the traditional territory of the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.
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