Last year, in the face of world economic ruin, Taddle Creek, trend bucker that it is, became perhaps the only magazine to launch an internship program. Given the great success of its 2009 edition, Taddle Creek is looking for a special someone to fill its protégé position once again.

The Taddle Creek Protégé Internmentship offers a well-rounded education in every area of the magazine industry—from writing, editing, and fact-checking, to design, circulation, and publishing, and more. The successful protégé applicant will be given the opportunity to speak to approximately two dozen industry professionals, representing more than twenty magazines (large, medium, and small), publishing houses, educational institutions, and other organizations. There will be talk of literature, but Taddle Creek stresses: this is not a literary magazine internship. (It is also a more instructional learning experience than a hands-on one, though the magazine will do its best to offer whatever trench experience it can.) And just to prove that any magazine can afford to pay an intern something, there will be a small (i.e., token) honorarium and some lovely gifts.

The Taddle Creek Protégé Internmentship is not full time. It will work around the schedules of both protégé and mentors, so it is ideal for those either in school or working another job. A minimum six-month commitment is required to meet with all mentors at a leisurely pace, though the protégé would be welcome to hang around for up to a year and see two issues of the magazine through.

Once again: this is meant to be a learning experience, so a love of magazines and a genuine desire to understand how they work will be weighed higher than previous experience when selecting the successful applicant. If you are dabbling in journalism or the magazine world and trying to figure out if it’s the life for you, do not apply. Taddle Creek is only able to take on one protégé at a time, so the spot will go to someone planning a future in the industry. By all means send a résumé, clippings, and anything else you so desire, but Taddle Creek is more interested in clever cover letters, original reasons for wanting the position, future hopes and dreams, literary and musical tastes, restraint to not cry under pressure, and ability to drink and bowl (if you can do both at the same time, even better).

The magazine will begin taking applications for the Taddle Creek Protégé Internmentship immediately, with a cut-off deadline of Friday, April 16, 2010, at which time it will pick a protégé to begin in mid-May. Please do not wait until the deadline to apply. Send your application, in whatever form it takes, to Taddle Creek, P.O. Box 611, Stn. P, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2Y4, or by E-mail, to editor[at]taddlecreekmag[dot]com.

Special thanks to the sponsors Steam Whistle Brewing, Magazines Canada, and Tad Gepechio, literary man about town.

Haven’t you bought the new issue of Taddle Creek yet? What are you waiting for? Fine—if all the stories further down this page aren’t enticement enough, here are two more:

“Corey Was a Danger Cat,” a short story by Heather Hogan; and

“See You Next Tuesday,” a short story by Stacey May Fowles, Taddle Creek’s Favourite Girl™.

Please go buy the issue now?

Taddle Creek being on Facebook is so 2009. If you really want to keep up with the magazine in this futuristic decade of the tens, you need to follow The Taddle Creek Twitter Feed of Tweets. Now you can get that special Taddle Creek wit you so enjoy at the beginning of every issue on a daily basis, one hundred and forty characters at a time. If lots of chatter about absolutely nothing important is your bag, you’ll love following Taddle Creek on Twitter. Tell your friends. (Even the Facebook kind.) 

Taddle Creek’s winter issue isn't usually very wintery, but this year, winter-type things just sort of crept in when Taddle Creek wasn’t looking. It’s a very arty issue too (also not planned). The issue is now on newsstands, so why not have a look for yourself. For a mere $4.95, you can even take one home with you.

And with a lineup like this, you won’t regret it. The Christmas, 2009, number of Taddle Creek (which features a lovely wraparound cover by Maurice Vellekoop) contains a comic by Jason Kieffer on the local legend Zanta, an essay on the sculptor Merle Foster by Terry Murray, alleyway illustrations by Michael Cho, a thoroughly bizarre art project by R. M. Vaughan (wait and look at that one after you've bought the issue), Dave Lapp’s People Around Here, and all-new fiction and poetry by Chris Chambers, Evie Christie, Dani Couture, Cary Fagan, Stacey May Fowles, Heather Hogan, Rose Hunter, Lindsay Zier-Vogel, and, of course, Nathaniel G. Moore.

And just because Taddle Creek loves to give, where are a few pieces to preview for free:

“Toronto’s Lady Santa Claus,” a profile by Terry Murray,

“Why, Zanta? Why?,” a comic by Jason Kieffer,

“Visiting Ours,” a poem by Chris Chambers,

“Pumpkin Patch,” a poem by Dani Couture, 

“Handful,” a poem by Evie Christie, and

“Savage,” an excerpt from a work-in-progress by Nathaniel G. Moore.

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 now has a page on the Facebook, and the magazine truly would love it if you visited and became a fan. It only takes a second. It takes little more time to tell your friends, if not in person then by E-mail or tweet or blog or smoke signal.

Please—feed Taddle Creek’s newfound obsession to have more fans than any other literary magazine. In just three days hundreds of people came to know the inner peace that only fans of The Taddle Creek Facebook Page on the Facebook know. So won’t you please be Taddle Creek’s Facebook friend?

Oh, the times that are sure to be had now that both you and Taddle Creek are on Facebook. It really is a era of change . . .

(And don’t forget—you can keep on top of both the Taddle Creek home page and the protégé blogs via the Taddle Creek Really Simple Syndication feed.)