Contributor’s Notes

This issue, Maisonneuve asked contributors,
“What’s your favorite midnight snack and why?”


Now married into Mormonism, investigative journalist MONA AWAD takes a bedtime serving of edible panties and the ghost of a cigarette.

Montreal illustrator DARREN Who-Needs-A-Reason-When-You’ve-Got-The-Duds BOOTH snacks on Milk Duds.

Toronto-based twin illustrators ERIN AND KELLY CARTY agree that only the sweet temptation of chocolate (cookies or ice cream, please) is worth getting up for in the middle of the night.

At home in the early hours, GIL COURTEMANCHE drinks wine. An essayist and political columnist for Le Devoir, the international journalist says it gives him comfort while writing discomfort. If his cellar is dry, he turns to popcorn or peanuts.

University of Victoria professor LORNA CROZIER has published twelve books of poetry in addition to her collected works, Blue Hour of the Day. She’ll rise at night to open the door for a cat, to close a blind that’s rattling in the wind, or to pee, but never to eat—not even tomatoes and lettuce.

Barred from her convent pensione for missing curfew, MARIA FRANCESCA LoDICO turned to Palermo’s street vendors for hot panelle. “Can you believe the nuns locked me out,” she curses through mouthfuls of chickpea fritters. “The little virgins!”

Governor General’s award winner for translation, science writer and UBC instructor, WAYNE GRADY translated Gil Courtemanche’s novel, A Good Death, from French. His favourite midnight snack is “Brain Surgeon,” a combination of back bacon and peanut butter on a Kaiser bun, which should be served with a Seizure Salad. Wayne says it’s all surprisingly delicious.

On those nights that travel writer TARAS GRESCOE sleeps alone, he opts for a can of fat, olive-oil packed sardines from Brittany, mushed with half-salted butter on a slice of rye picked up on Montreal’s Rue St. Viateur.

Mogwai and New York-based Maisonneuve editor-at-large NICK HARAMIS isn’t allowed food after midnight. Bright light and water are also very bad ideas.

BRIAN HUNTINGTON lives in Smithers BC. For more information on his photography, contact him at brhuntington@yahoo.com.

Although he says it’s now under control, SAM KEAN, used to overdo the snacking. In every midnight bite, he combines vanilla ice cream, Little Debbies and pretzels. The Washington DC writer may love nothing more than a sugar buzz, but he has to go easy. During his college years, when midnight snacking was de rigueur, his heart would pump so hard after a binge that vessels in his nose would burst and bleed.

These days (and nights), illustrator TESSAR LO takes coffee at midnight to wash down his cream cheese and pepperoni sandwiches.

Freelance photographer COLIN O’CONNOR calls Toronto home but has travelled to refugee camps for internally displaced people in Uganda and has worked for the Globe and Mail, Outpost and This magazine.

When freelance photographer MARC SCHULTZ needs a late-night, high-energy fix, he knocks back fried bugs and nothing but fried bugs. Based in Thailand and a contributor to Wallpaper and National Geographic Traveler, he says it’s the crunch that hooked him.

Writer RINA PALTA goes for plain white rice. Why? She says it’s probably something to do with being Asian.

St. John’s writer ANDREAE PROZESKY has been known to get out of bed in the middle of the night and eat whipped cream with ginger cookies. She started doing this while pregnant, but four years on, the excuse is wearing thin.

California visual artist KYLE REED creates his disjointed-yet-smooth collages using both traditional and digital means. He counts McDonald’s and Budweiser as clients, and we like to imagine him tucking into a double, bacon, something-or-other to quell the midnight munchies.

After midnight, TADZIO RICHARDS mixes vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and crushed maple cookies. “It’s super good,” he says, “and dieting is evil.

Toronto photographer and Ryerson Master’s student JENNIFER ROBERTS sheepishly admits she goes for boring ol’ cheese and crackers.

Prospective short-order cook MARKO SIJAN learned at a young age that midnight snacks guarantee weight gain. So this Toronto poet and memoirist doesn’t eat after 23:59 and even if he did, he would keep it under wraps to make sure it didn’t get back to his mother.

New to Montreal from BC, photographer and editorial intern MEGAN STEWART really can’t get enough poutine. Her neighbourhood is home to La Banquise, where twenty-two variations on the basic fries, cheese curds and gravy combo clog arteries twenty-four hours a day.

Past PRISM International poetry editor SHANNON STEWART enjoys a glass of red wine and a bite of cheese. Her upcoming poetry collection, Penny Dreadful, takes a look at Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Robert Pickton murder trial. 

Depending how many hours he’s behind, at midnight, Montreal photographer EZRA TEITEL will feed on breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Popcorn: lightly buttered and sprinkled with grated Parmesan. For reasons unfathomable, University of Iowa Master’s student DIANA WILSON eats the crunchy parts first and collects each soft puff to savour as the grand finale. Such exacting work tires her out and when it’s done, she falls into a deep sleep.

Author CAROL WINDLEY says, “Let’s suspend disbelief and imagine I’m awake at midnight. There’s a kind of wholegrain flatbread made here on Vancouver Island, very dry and crisp, lightly seasoned with roasted red peppers and black olives. Spread with a little cream cheese it’s absolutely delectable. that’s what I’d crave, definitely.”

Believing those urban, basement-set stories of his youth, JARED YOUNG snacks on the 4.2 spiders he swallows each year in his sleep. He downs the eight-legged crawlies with ice-cold Ovaltine.