—Kerri Crousset BTH., BA., MSW., RSW.

—Pastor Cathy Prout CENTRALIA FAITH TABERNACLE

A basement? Don't worry - with strings of overhead garden lights and pale walls, it's a relaxing and welcoming space.

If you journey into the heart of downtown Toronto you'll find Creeds Coffee Bar tucked into a clever dry-cleaning shop on Dupont Street. It is a hip urban space with an industrial cozy feel and it was all ours for the launch of Just Words Volume 3—the third anthology of work by Canadian Blank Spaces contributors. Complete with a full service bar and guests who came from as far as Montreal, it was a recipe for an incredible night.


We set up a small pop-up shop, displaying every back issue of Blank Spaces, along with t-shirts, pins, bumper stickers, magnets, notebooks, past anthologies, and of course, the latest anthology.

It was wonderful to meet some of our contributors face to face and to hear them read their pieces. In a Facebook post, Toronto Book Awards finalist, Ann Y. K. Choi called it a beautiful and powerful evening. "Some authors were reading in public for the first time - their hands trembling as they stood by the mic."

We are so proud of these writers—some of whom can call Blank Spaces the launching point for their literary careers—who faced those public speaking jitters and got up in front of the crowd. One such writer, Harvey Mitro, who read his beautiful piece on running, shared about the moment he found out his work had been accepted. He said he came home from work to find a red balloon tied with a note from his wife, telling him his story was going to be published! Hearing those little glimpses into people's lives was an affirming reminder that what we're trying to do with Blank Spaces is resonating a deep chord across Canada.

A big part of the vision for this magazine is to foster a creative community that is encouraging and empowering, and if this launch event did nothing else, it certainly affirmed that mission. Watching contributors connect over specialty coffees and glasses of wine, exchange contact information, and offer one another accolades and encouragements, we could see that our hope of championing Canadian creatives is spreading out from our small team to each person Blank Spaces touches and that's an incredibly rewarding and humbling thing to realize.

It is our hope that this community continues to grow, that someday we'll gather for Just Words Volume 10, that strong friendships are borne through the pages of Blank Spaces, and that more and more people are touched by our desire to foster community.

We need to offer a huge thank you to Creeds Coffee Bar for allowing us to rent their amazing space; to Fateema Miller, Creeds's event coordinator, who set up the sound equipment, ran the bar, and was hugely encouraging throughout the night; to every contributor who allowed us to showcase their work in the anthology; to every person who showed up in person (or in spirit) to help us celebrate; and finally to the entire Blank Spaces team who pitched in with set-up, door prize ticket sales, and book sales. You are all treasures and made the night run smoothly!

If you haven't ordered your copy of Just Words Volume 3, you can do that now by clicking the BUY NOW button below. (Complete your purchase by clicking on the shopping bag.)

Profits from every sale of this collection help us further the work and mission of Blank Spaces.



Check out our Event Album below!

Celebrating 37 Canadian authors and their work as featured during the first year of Blank Spaces, a literary arts magazine birthed out of small town Ontario. Filled with creative non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, Just Words Volume 2 is a true reflection of the heart, humour, and depth of Canadian creatives; capturing, in its text, the very pulse of Blank Spaces.

Editor in Chief, Alanna Rusnak, along with her editing partners, Pamela Hopwood and Michelle McLaughlin, have brought this collection together beautifully. Wrapped in the gorgeous colours of Toronto artist, Sharon Barr, the book delivers as much beauty on the outside as its words do inside.

Officially launched at the Word on the Street Festival at the Toronto, Ontario harbour front, Just Words Volume 2 was met with a warm reception from eager readers, going on to be named the Number Two new release for Canadian Collections on Amazon.

Fourth Annual Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Shortlist Announced

Canada’s hottest new books have been selected in three genres: Non-Fiction, Literary Fiction and Mystery.

When her debut novel, The Church in the Wildwood, received such a warm reception from readers and fans of her work, Alanna Rusnak felt compelled to dig a little deeper into the story of her favourite character, resulting in a novella that erases the barrier between character and author.  

The Ghost of Iris Carver is a tender, emotional journey back to the character that enriched the Wildwood narrative. Though readers have proved to be quite polarized in their opinion of the flawed Iris Carver, the consensus is clear that she is not to be overlooked and is, in fact, a stirrer of great conversation and self-reflection.

With high calibre writing and profound observations, The Ghost of Iris Carver sings from the pages with clever plot twists and the author's passionate love for the art of writing.

Readers and other writers alike will connect to Rusnak's creation in that divine place of creative souls.


"If there were ever any doubt in my mind about Alanna Rusnak's extraordinary talent, she has fully eradicated any uncertainty with her latest novella, 'The Ghost of Iris Carver'. Not only was she able to create deeply engaging characters and bring them fully to life on the page, but she was equally capable of expertly placing them into a conceptual labyrinth and conceal them just behind the venerable, sacred, fourth wall. Sorry Margaret (Atwood), move over Madeleine (Thien), shake a leg Miriam (Toews), and so-long-for-now Ann-Marie (MacDonald), Heather (O'Neill), and Elizabeth (Hay). I have a new favourite Canadian author and she's one to watch."

—Geraldine MacDonald (medical translator, writer, published author)      Officially launched at the Neustadt Craft Fair on May 5, 2018 in Neustadt, Ontario, The Ghost of Iris Carver is making quick work of haunting its readers, rooting within them an almost desperate need for the next installment in Rusnak's Fallmoore Chronicles, which is in the works for a Spring 2019 release.

Copies are available through this website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.

KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK (March 30, 2018 - page 27) printed a little blurb on the release of Hannibal Lecture's book, Arguments with Mortality. And while they properly attributed publication to ARP, they went on to contribute a lot of quotes to Alanna, which were things she did not say (though doesn't disagree with). The quotes were taken from Hannibal's bio and the back cover copy of the book.