QWF Writes

Category: Chronicling the Days

  • Chronicling the Days – Romy Shiller

    Chronicling the Days – Romy Shiller

    In April 2020, we invited writers in Quebec to submit a story of a single day during the strange, uneasy time of coronavirus and pandemic, of social distancing and self isolation, of lockdown and quarantine.

    We’re thrilled to announce that these stories have been gathered in Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic (Guernica Press). To learn more and buy the book, please visit https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771836579.

    Please also join us on the QWF FB Community page, and let the authors know if their words resonated.

    This piece is by Romy Shiller, writing on Saturday, April 4, 2020.

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    Image: Romy Shiller

    A lot of time these days is spent in my head and drinking coffee.

    I’m so friggin’ bored. I keep thinking of the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ and I feel guilty. In the movie Rita says to the Bill Murray character, ‘So this is what you do with eternity…’ I think he was stuffing pastries into his mouth at the time. He ends up learning to play an instrument and reading something obviously intellectual and helping strangers. Even though every day is the same, he chooses to be productive. Yup, not me. I think that what I do or don’t do is the equivalent of stuffing pastries into my mouth.

    To read the rest of the story, please support our community and check out Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic

  • Chronicling the days – Gina Roitman

    Chronicling the days – Gina Roitman

    In April 2020, we invited writers in Quebec to submit a story of a single day during the strange, uneasy time of coronavirus and pandemic, of social distancing and self isolation, of lockdown and quarantine.

    We’re thrilled to announce that these stories have been gathered in Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic (Guernica Press). To learn more and buy the book, please visit https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771836579.

    Please also join us on the QWF FB Community page, and let the authors know if their words resonated.

    This piece is by Gina Roitman, writing on Friday, April 3, 2020.

    Costco_Wholesale

    Today was our first day out after a two-week quarantine following a complicated and harrowing return from Europe. That’s another story. We live in the Lower Laurentians so are accustomed to isolation and working from home. That has not been a hardship. But we came back to Canada after five weeks in Spain and France, to a larder I allowed to go bare before leaving.

    To read the rest of the story, please support our community and check out Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic

  • Chronicling the Days – Geoffrey Edwards

    Chronicling the Days – Geoffrey Edwards

    In April 2020, we invited writers in Quebec to submit a story of a single day during the strange, uneasy time of coronavirus and pandemic, of social distancing and self isolation, of lockdown and quarantine.

    We’re thrilled to announce that these stories have been gathered in Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic (Guernica Press). To learn more and buy the book, please visit https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771836579.

    Please also join us on the QWF FB Community page, and let the authors know if their words resonated.

    This piece is by Geoffrey Edwards, writing on Friday, April 3, 2020.

    QuebecCity

    The nightmare still has its hold on me as I awaken. The dark is still all around, and I find myself thinking, it is a time of ending. It takes me more than an hour to calm the rapid heartbeat, to find the state of quiet acceptance that allows me to sleep again.

    To read the rest of the story, please support our community and check out Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic

  • Chronicling the Days – Ariela Freedman

    Chronicling the Days – Ariela Freedman

    In April 2020, we invited writers in Quebec to submit a story of a single day during the strange, uneasy time of coronavirus and pandemic, of social distancing and self isolation, of lockdown and quarantine.

    We’re thrilled to announce that these stories have been gathered in Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic (Guernica Press). To learn more and buy the book, please visit https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771836579.

    Please also join us on the QWF FB Community page, and let the authors know if their words resonated.

    Our first piece is by Ariela Freedman, writing on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

    EggsCreativeCommons

    “What are days for?”

    The line begins a Philip Larkin poem that I first read on the New York subway, sandwiched between ads for Dr. Zizmor and for real estate brokers. The question has been on my mind a lot over these disrupted, strange, static weeks.

    This morning I woke up a little after 6 am. I was dreaming that we drove down an underpass and into an ocean. But we didn’t drown; when I woke up, my dream self was trying to figure out how to push the car back onto dry land. Not subtle, my unconscious. Not drowning yet, but waving.

    To read the rest of the story, please support our community and check out Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic