Canada has a brand new arts and literature publication. Winnipeg-based Reverie Review features painting, fashion, writing and more. The magazine is the brainchild of editor Emily McDonald. She and co-editor Laura Woelk launched the inaugural issue on Oct. 8 at Forth Café.

McDonald says the goal of Reverie was to give “a platform to artists. I know that (it) can be tough to find a place to put your work and get it out there, so I wanted to create (space) for people who are looking for a place to do that.”

Reverie also features fashion by designer Mat Kurtas.

“We think Mat’s work makes you think about art differently,” McDonald says. “You start to look beyond the ‘typical’ mediums that one thinks of such as painting or drawing and begin to realize what art can really all encompass. We are really excited to be able to represent a full range of what art is and can be.”

They originally intended for the magazine to publish Winnipeg artists and writers and describe the magazine on social media as “a submission-based arts and literature publication in Winnipeg, intended to be an outlet for local artists to showcase and publish their art.”

McDonald, however, says she and Woelk were “kind of surprised how things took off” and “were getting people (submitting) from all over Canada.” They received submissions from as far away as the United Kingdom.

“We said that we were going to keep it Canadian for the beginning, just to keep it simpler. We unfortunately said no (to international submissions) for now, but maybe in the future we’ll be able to keep going ... That would be pretty cool.”

Vancouver-based Ash Winters has three poems in the magazine.

“This is the second literary magazine that I have been published in, and I could not be more excited to have my work be part of the first Reverie. It is small, independent literary magazines like Reverie that support local writing talent across Canada, bringing poetry into our communities and our daily life. (I’m) so grateful to be a part of this ... addition to the Winnipeg literary scene,” Winters says in an email to The Uniter.

McDonald was especially excited to publish a lyrical personal essay from Angelica Castellaneta, which follows Castelleneta’s university years in Toronto and experiences grappling with borderline personality disorder.

Castellaneta and McDonald went to elementary school together. McDonald describes her as a “really talented writer,” mentioning that she thinks it’s “really cool” that someone she’s known for a long time is being published in the magazine.

While the submission date for the next issue has not been set, McDonald says, “We are definitely planning to have more.” Follow Reverie on Facebook to find out where to get copies of their first issue and for future submission calls.

Published in Volume 74, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 10, 2019)