February 2026 newsletter
issue 2, volume 23
Join us tonight for an evening of poetry, Afro-diasporic music, and history!
Nick Peck plays jazz piano as VIU professor and The Malahat Review poetry editorial board member Sonnet L’Abbé tells their story of Black expression, performing both covers and their own work.
FREE to all
Tuesday, February 10
7:30pm-9:00pm
University of Victoria, Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
How to get there? Pay parking, including accessible parking, is available in nearby Parking Lot E (inside the Ring) and Parking Lot 6 (outside the Ring) for $5 for the evening. Free parking is located on Cedar Hill X Road between University Drive and Crestview Road, a 10- to 15-minute walk from the university. Many busses end their routes at the University of Victoria. Please reference the BC Transit website for route and fare info.
This event was co-sponsored by UVic’s English, History, and Writing departments.
Kieran Kalls Rice interviews Jason Pearce, issue #233 fiction contributor
KKR: I’m also curious to hear about your approach to embedding your writing with a critique of colonialism without falling into moralizing territory and/or hammering the reader over the head with such a critique. I bring this up because I think you’ve struck a really good balance in this story and it’s something that I’m constantly thinking about and trying to figure out for myself.
JP: It comes down to humour again. No one wants to be preached to or told their preconceptions are wrong. But if we shine a comedic light on those biases, the audience should recognize that absurdity for themselves. It requires an appreciation for irony, but it’s a tool as old as storytelling itself.
I also go back to the basic principle of “show don’t tell.” “Binding Arbitration” targets the notion that institutionalized religion is somehow more legitimate than Indigenous tradition. I could waggle my finger and put folks on the defensive, but it’s more effective to simply show them the beauty of our ways of knowing. To my mind, that is what Indigenous storytelling does best: show us things that make sense of the world we hold so dear.
Jason Pearce interviews Kieran Kalls Rice, issue #233 fiction contributor
JP: This story touches on familiar themes of cultural theft and reclamation, yet you bring freshness to those themes through settings, characters and tensions that are hauntingly real. Tell us a bit about your creative process in developing this story, from initial concept to final draft. Did you sit down with the intention of writing about these themes and craft the story accordingly? Or did the characters and setting arrive first?
KKR: My creative process began with a research project and a creative essay I wrote two years ago that focused on non-Indigenous museums and how they handle stolen Indigenous ceremonial materials. My essay was inspired by Gloria Cranmer Webster’s wonderful work and her talking about a “diametric opposition” she observed in museum conservation practises; the non-Indigenous method of preserving to infinity, versus the North-West Coast Indigenous method of leaving them outside to rot and then creating new ones. It was also inspired by the anger that I felt walking through non-Indigenous museums and seeing my community’s materials on display. After I was finished writing my essay, I still felt fascinated and angry enough to write a short story about the situation. I wanted to come up with a story that would express these diametrically opposed philosophies because I’m fascinated by the lack of understanding on both sides about the other’s actions and thoughts. All of this is to say that it was very intentional to write about these ideas, and in this case the theme came before the character and setting.
Name acknowledgment & the Malahat Nation
When The Malahat Review was founded in 1967 at the University of Victoria, the name “Malahat” was taken and used without consultation, permission, or acknowledgment. In response to our desire to make right this wrong, the Malahat Nation has graciously offered the words that follow.
Malahat Nation is part of the W̱SÁNEĆ People, one of five Nations with deep roots along the lands and waters of southern Vancouver Island. Our people speak SENĆOŦEN, hul’q’umi’num’, and Samish—traditional languages that carry our teachings, stories, and responsibilities.* We are a Coast Salish Nation, living and working together as we walk forward in a good way.
More local events:
latest issue: winter #233
Guest Editor Richard Van Camp
Cover art by Kristi Bridgeman
Art by Jenn Ashton, Crystal Behn, Kristi Bridgeman, Samantha Erron Gibbon, giiwedinongkwe, Hali Heavy Shield, Michael J. Leeb, Autumn Moosehunter, Heather Rampanen, Syndel Thomas Kozar
Poetry by ʕAʔíCKʷALAʔ, Jennifer Adese, Michelle Poirier Brown, Cathi Charles Wherry, Henry Heavyshield, Mika Lafond, Samantha Martin-Bird, Victor Hugo Mendevil, Autumn Moosehunter, Shantell Powell, Athena Serbourne, Raymond Sewell, Syndel Thomas Kozar, Jenna Timmons-Oikawa, Jayli Wolf
Fiction by Brandon Bobb, Jessie Conrad, Francine Cunningham, Annie MacKillican, Mason Mantla, Jason Pearce, Daly Quintal, Kieran Kalls Rice, Stacie VanEvery
Creative nonfiction by Lareina Abbott, Odette Auger, Dayne Brelyn, Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway, Jaymie Campbell, Marion Erickson, Marshall Hill
Reviews of new books by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Chris M. Cannon, Andrea Currie, Jennifer David, Kyle Edwards, Sarain Frank Soonias, Dallas Hunt, Patty Krawec, Chyana Marie Sage, and Shannon Webb-Campbell