The Future is as Bright as We Dream it to Be

the letter from the editor as featured on page 5 of the December 2018 issue of Blank Spaces

Sometimes, the span between issues seems enormous when I think about everything that happens in that space. Since our second anniversary edition in September, we released a new anthology (Just Words Volume 2, coming out as the number two new release in Canadian collections and readers on Amazon in its first week); we took to the Toronto Harbour Front for Word on the Street (so nice to chat with so many readers and contributors there!); we launched a new fundraising campaign with some really big goals (go to patreon.com/blankspaces to learn more about that); and we were part of a publishing event at the University of Toronto in November, where we made some great connections with eager creative writing students looking for opportunities to share their work.

As the Blank Spaces community continues to grow, I find myself increasingly humbled to see the ripples of its influence. What a powerful time we’re living in, when someone can post a vision on a website and watch people across a whole country rally around it and take it up as their own!

I recently participated in a local craft fair, my publishing booth a little out of place among the stained glass and homemade baby hats, but what a pleasure to share my passion with an unsuspecting public! What a thrill to sell three back issues to an older woman who was over the moon to know that a ‘young person’ was keeping print alive in Canada!

There are moments of self-doubt, certainly times when I shake my head and think I have no business doing this, but then my email dings with another submission or a word of encouragement from someone who is moved by the work we’re trying to do and I’m reminded that what we’re doing is making a difference in the creative journeys of creatives all across Canada.

In the foreword of Just Words Volume 2 I said that I wanted “to make a positive mark on the future of Canadian creatives. It doesn’t have to be a big mark. It could be minuscule in the vast scope of the publishing industry; but someday, when someone is examining their life, I want them to gaze through the microscope and see that Blank Spaces positively influenced them on their artistic pursuit, whatever it was.”

Legacy matters, and I hope Blank Spaces is as much a part of yours as it is of mine as together, we fill the gaps with story and colour.

Alanna Rusnak, Editor-in-Chief