The Taddle Creek Travelling Series of Happenings kicked-off on June 11th in Toronto, and now the magazine is hitting the road. East and west coast legs of the tour have already been completed and Montreal and New York events are T.B.A. soon. For full information, check the official tour page. Taddle Creek hopes to run into you on its travels.

Taddle Creek’s long awaited Out-of-Towner issue is now on sale at a variety of fine newsstands. This historic issue sees Taddle Creek temporarily remove its Toronto-centric restrictions, and features authors and artists from coast to coast in all directions. To celebrate this one-time-only event, the magazine is proud to also announce The Taddle Creek Travelling Series of Happenings, a tour that Taddle Creek hopes will see it play to tens of people across Canada and the U.S. this summer and fall.

Taddle Creek’s Out-of-Towner issues features new fiction and poetry by Michael Christie (Victoria), Danielle Egan (Vancouver), Jesse Patrick Ferguson (Fredericton), Judy McCrosky (Saskatoon), Catherine McGuire (Sweet Home, Oregon), Peter Norman (Halifax), David Ross (Toronto), Alexandra Wilder (New York), and Elana Wolff (Thornhill, Ontario). Plus, an essay on Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood by Sarah Gilbert (Montreal); a photo gallery of and essay on Saint John, New Brunswick, by Ian MacEachern (London, Ontario) and Tony Tobias (Toronto), respectively; a profile of Vancouver’s Lee Henderson by Toronto’s Mark Medley; comics by David Collier (Hamilton) and Jason Turner (Vancouver); illustrations by Matthew Daley (Toronto) and Zach Worton (Montreal); all the regular features, including a short piece by Jenn Hardy (Montreal) and Dave Lapp’s People Around Here; and a cover by Pascal Blanchet (Trois-Rivières, Quebec).

It’s an issue well worth the five dollars. Taddle Creek hopes to see you on the road this summer! 

Because Taddle Creek knows you just can’t wait, here are two advance selections from the upcoming Out-of-Towner issue:

From Victoria, “The Quiet,” a short story by Michael Christie;

and from Fredericton, “Cappuccinos for the Planet,” a poem by Jesse Patrick Ferguson.

More to come. Enjoy!

Regular readers know that Taddle Creek takes the art of accuracy very seriously. The magazine goes to great lengths to ensure everything that is meant to be real-world factual in its fiction and poetry is so (to the dismay of many of its contributors), and goes to even greater lengths—if that’s possible—to make sure its non-fiction pieces end up error-free. Taddle Creek’s high standards in this area are both a matter of pride and a matter of trust between magazine and reader.

While the magazine’s track record in the accuracy game is strong, even a magazine with such a crack fact-checking department as Taddle Creek makes mistakes. It’s not something the magazine is proud of, but facts show that it is impossible for a publication to be error-free one hundred per cent of the time, so Taddle Creek must trust its own research, however much it hurts.

But there is one area of accuracy in which Taddle Creek has been remiss: corrections. The magazine is happy to report that, to its knowledge, it has never published a major error—but it has committed many small ones. Some would argue small errors don’t matter that much but, taking things to extremes, as Taddle Creek is wont to do, the magazine disagrees. Maintaining the gold standard of literary-magazine fact-checking means fessing up to even the smallest of mistakes. And so, beginning immediately, the magazine will make note of and correct any erroneous information it discovers in its pages, regardless of its perceived importance. Errors will be listed in the magazine and on the magazine’s Web site. On-line corrections will be appended to pieces originally containing the error, and also can be found at www.taddlecreekmag.com/corrections. For the sake of public record, the on-line corrections page also lists every error that has come to the magazine’s attention since its first issue. And just to prove Taddle Creek is serious about owning up to its mistakes, any reader pointing out an error in an issue of the magazine will receive a free two-year subscription. (Taddle Creek reserves the right to decide for itself if it is in error.) Once again, Taddle Creek leads where other literary magazines fear to tread. You’re welcome.

Congratulations to Michael Cho, whose illustrated comic story “Trinity,” from Taddle Creek’s summer, 2009, comic issue, recently was nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Words & Pictures category. It was Mike’s third nomination for Taddle Creek, and the magazine’s ninth nomination in a decade. Mike won a silver medal two years ago for his Taddle Creek story “Stars.”

“Trinity” (which will also be appearing this fall in the Neil Gaiman–edited Best American Comics 2010 anthology), and the rest of the comic issue, can now be found on-line.

As some readers likely know, the federal government has been tinkering with its arts funding of late. The magazine has complained about this enough already so, long story short: Taddle Creek does not meet the new arbitrary annual circulation number required to qualify for operating money from the Canada Periodical Fund.

What does this mean for Taddle Creek? Well, the magazine won’t be going away anytime soon, not to worry (rejoice?). But it now is faced with an annual budget that is 40% smaller than it used to be. (The government has also ended a long-standing postal subsidy, which will result in a 400% increase in Taddle Creek’s mailing costs.) The magazine has seen tremendous growth—both in quality and readership—in the years since this level of funding was introduced, and it would like that growth to continue. You can help.

How?, you ask. Well, Taddle Creek would never do anything so crass as to ask for donations (though a rich benefactor would certainly be welcome), but there are some simple things you can do that would benefit the magazine a great deal:

Buy the magazine

Subscriptions are a kind of lifeblood to small mags. Unlike newsstand sales, 100% of the money earned goes directly to the magazine. If you already subscribe, please renew your subscription as soon as it comes due (mailing multiple reminders is very expensive), and be sure to notify the magazine of your new address if you move. You can subscribe on-line via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or PayPal, or by sending $12 (cheque, money order, cash, or credit card info) to Taddle Creek at P.O. Box 611, Stn. P, Toronto, Ont. M5S 2Y4. The price is probably going to have to go way up soon as a result of this budget cut, so subscribe/renew today.

If you like buying your magazine in the store, that’s certainly fine by Taddle Creek. The magazine is available all over the place. If you can’t find it in your area, drop the magazine a line and it will see what it can do to change that. With enough new readers, Taddle Creek might just qualify for C.P.F. funding again someday.

Keep in touch with the magazine

There are lots of ways to keep up with what Taddle Creek is doing. If you’re already on Facebook or Twitter, fan or follow Taddle Creek. You can also visit any page of the Taddle Creek Web site, scroll down to the bottom, and sign up for the magazine’s E-mail list. If you’re already on the E-mail list, be sure to open up the E-mails when they arrive—they’re infrequent, don’t worry. And both the home page and blog page of the Taddle Creek Web site have RSS feeds you can follow. (Following Taddle Creek electronically has the added bonus of making the magazine feel loved when it sees its follower numbers go up.) You can also write the magazine a letter to let it know what you liked/disliked about the latest issue. Taddle Creek loves to get mail.

Party with the magazine

Taddle Creek dares say it has the best literary events in town. Come on out to a launch, meet people, hang with friends, and take in some entertainment. While you’re there, have a drink or two to thank the fine establishment that has generously donated space for the evening. And be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine. Taddle Creek never charges a cover for its events, but that doesn’t mean they don’t cost money. Taddle Creek needs to sell magazines to break even. If you already subscribe, pick up a copy for a friend (especially if it’s the summer party and you’re getting free food and beer). 

ADVERTISE IN THE MAGAZINE

If you’re in a position to do so, drop Taddle Creek a line to discuss how you can reach tens of hundreds of readers at a very affordable price.

Tell a friend about the magazine

The best promoter Taddle Creek has is you. Loan a friend a copy, buy them a subscription, bring them to a launch, forward an E-mail, retweet a tweet, write something on the magazine’s Facebook wall, for whatever good that does. Every little bit helps.

Taddle Creek has always strived to be more than just a typical literary magazine. It feels literature deserves better than a grey digest of a journal. Help keep Toronto arts and culture well-edited and tastefully flashy. Thank you. (And a special thanks to those among you who already do any or all of the above. You’re the real heroes. Not like firemen or astronauts, but a close second, honest.)

Yes, Taddle Creek has finally slipped south of the Canadian border, adding three U.S. newsstands to its distribution list. The magazine is now available at McNally Jackson, in New York City; Quimby’s, in Chicago; and City Lights, in San Francisco. Tell your friends! And check out the Where To Buy page for a complete list of where to find Taddle Creek. (Want Taddle Creek in your store? Drop the magazine a line!)

Very well. You browbeat Taddle Creek, you called it names, and you’ve won. Taddle Creek has become social. Next time it’s raining outside, you’ve read all your books, and there’s nothing good on TV (or if you’re just at work), surf on over to The Taddle Creek Facebook Page on the Facebook and/or The Taddle Creek Twitter Feed of Tweets and become the magazine's fan and/or follower. Taddle Creek so cherishes the special connection with its readers that only Facebook and Twitter can provide.

If you’re still into that whole E-mail thing, don’t worry: just scroll down to the bottom of any page on the Taddle Creek Web site and sign up for The Taddle Creek Mailing List of Current Information. It’s sent infrequently, and the magazine will never give your address to third parties.

Finally, both the Taddle Creek home page and the Taddle Creek Weblogs can be followed via The Taddle Creek Really Simple Syndication Feeds (RSS).

Now you don’t have to wait six months for a dose of the fun and wit for which Taddle Creek is so famous. Oh, the times that are sure to be had now that both you and Taddle Creek are social on-line!