Short Fiction
Other Writings
In 2002, 26,000 of U.S. state prison inmates convicted for murder were deemed mentally ill. They had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar or other psychotic disorders. In 2007, 24 percent of Canadian prison inmates suffered from either schizophrenia or major depression. And the numbers have only risen since. It’s evident: prisons have become the mental asylums of the 21st century. But should putting mentally ill behind bars, away from society, really be our solution? The answer is no.
Bill 60, or the Québec Charter of Values, had been in the media for several months. And while the threat of the Bill has now passed, do we truly know what living under such a charter would entail?
Low voices murmur in the night, just audible over the gurgling of the Vienna Danube Canal. Bright colored lights mark the building and its entrance, reflecting brilliantly off the calm water. It gives the place an almost carnival-like atmosphere. But the low rumbling of techno beats and bass than can be felt more than heard, rumbling through ground, gives away my location. No quaint Viennese coffeehouse, but the well-known Vienna nightclub Flex.
Whose Gene Is It Anyway? (2013)
Can genes be patented? That was the question posed to both the U.S. Supreme Court and Australian Federal Court earlier this month. And the answer should be – no.
Sourcing home away from home: butcher shops in Montréal’s Mile End and Plateau (2014)
If Montréal is not your indigenous home, chances are you are occasionally craving some dish from your native country. Just like me. But often the ingredients for those dishes can be a little harder to source here in Montréal, and don’t come pre-made or pre-cut at your local grocery store. Which often means you may have to get al little creative and make them from scratch.
Metropolis Bleu 2014: Women Writing Trauma, Women Writing Survival
Three writers, Ann Charney, Koethi Zan and Elise Moser, asked themselves the same questions when they worked on their recently published books, ‘Life Class’, ‘The Never List’ and ‘Lily & Taylor’, and spoke about their experiences in ‘writing about women living and surviving trauma’ at the CBC’s Cinq à Six at Montreal’s Metropolis Bleu Literary Festival 2014.
Marlene Heloise Oeffinger 