Ten years ago, the mantle of Sun Coral’s Innkeeper fell to me, and in the four centuries that it has stood in Coveter’s Cove, I became the youngest member of the Lirio family to ever manage it. My mom never failed to remind me and my brother Ethan of this. I probably accepted the job when I was...
Latest Stories
Two Quarks in Love
i. Bottom Quark Top, bottom, up down, charm me into strange submission, Quark, just this one time we can poof away time like snaps leave no trace of feelings I once had. You top, I’ll bottom and one day you’ll decay become me. Then you can lean into my synaptic cleft, but don’t get too positive or...
Wet: An Interview with Leanne Dunic
Interview by L’Amour Lisik In connection with the annual Victoria Festival of Authors taking place October 16 to 20, 2024, Plenitude prose editor L’Amour Lisik interviews Leanne Dunic, whose latest poetry collection, Wet, was released in Spring 2024 with Talonbooks. Leanne Dunic transgresses genres...
A Contemporary Tragicomedy
ACT 1: Will the Real Billy Bard Please Stand Up? A lady told me the other day that Shakespeare was really a man by the name of Edward de Vere—an earl, or a count, or a royal gondolier from Oxford or Downtown Abbey or something— and expected me to fall over aft-ways at the prospect of such...
Everybody’s Darlings
“I’ve always been a great puzzle to myself.” —Jo Carol Pierce I resent anything that isn’t a simple machine, like a push mower or a pair of scissors. I could explode a bicycle into all its component parts in half an hour, lay them on the ground from end to end. I like things with schematics...
Half-Bads in White Regalia: An Interview with Cody Caetano
Interview by Shawn Syms In connection with the annual Victoria Festival of Authors taking place October 16 to 20, 2024, Plenitude book reviews editor Shawn Syms interviews Cody Caetano, author of the best-selling 2022 memoir Half-Bads in White Regalia, which was long-listed for Canada Reads and...
coup de foudre
they call the phenomenon “the brain zaps.” …………I call it the air before a thunderstorm. ……………………metal on your tongue. scent more ………………………………ozone than petrichor. harsher. …………………………………………you’re all sweat and dizzy ………………………………from the buzz, the crackle of it ……………………reverberating in your head:...
reef anchor
the chevron has rubbed off my anchor ring tattoo chain and rod swim rootless in finger flesh book re-ink appointment on the to-do list—ten years and counting you and I sleep in separate rooms one of us may as well get a good sleep new parents—temporary measure—eight years and counting coral reef...
Doom Scrolling: Choose Your Own Adventure
Lena Mutafov (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist focusing on poetry, fiction, photography, comedy, and music. They believe humor and vulnerability can go hand in hand. Her poetry has been published in Sea and Cedar and Eavesdrop Magazine, and she has featured as a spoken word poet for...