Contributor’s Notes

This issue Maisonneuve asked contributors, "What's the best part about being a man or a woman?"

TAIAIAKE ALFRED is a Kanien'kehaka writer and orator. Educated by Jesuits, he was a machine-gunner in the US Marines and has a PhD from Cornell University. He divides his time between Victoria, British Columbia, and the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. According to his sister, he's spoiled rotten by three generations of Mohawk women.

DAVID BALZER is a teacher and freelance writer living in Toronto. For him, the best part of manhood is vicarious womanhood.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN is a novelist who has also written for Salon, Playboy.com, Harper's Bazaar, Details, Nerve, Variety and Exquisite Corpse. She thinks gender is a fine masquerade.

SUZANNE BUFFAM's first book of poems, Past Imperfect, was published this spring by House of Anansi Press. She teaches poetry in Chicago and loves to lie awake nights listening to the quiet ticking of her biological clock.

LINO DINALLO is an advertising copywriter and occasional memoirist living in Toronto. He relishes the ability to pee standing up.

ELIZABETH ELLEN lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, despite her boyfriend's claim to the contrary, she does not flirt with every Tom, Dick and Mary. That said, she is not above the occasional batting of an eye or hair-toss, if it means an extra shot of espresso in her morning latte.

MATTHEW FOX is the author of a new short-story collection called Cities of Weather. Facial hair, he believes, is both the best and worst thing about being a man.

GABRIELLE GIRODAY is a Toronto-based inkstress who has yet to pen her first hardcover. She did not enjoy wearing four-inch heels in Moscow to look like a local, but such was the nature of the work.

SUSAN GLICKMAN's first novel, The Violin Lover, is due out in spring 2006. She lives with her husband, two children, and two guinea pigs in Toronto, where she has discovered that pregnant women still get offered seats on the subway.

JEET HEER says the best thing about being a man is that you always have licence to mourn the decline of masculinity.

IAIN HIGGINS lives quietly in Victoria, British Columbia, where he hopes to answer Robbie Burns's brainteaser: "What signifies the life o' man, / An' 'twere not for the lasses, O?"

Living in Hamilton, Ontario—an ageing city of industry—MATT KAVANAGH is reminded of J. G. Ballard's gloomy claim that the human male sex has become a rust bowl. He is thinking about moving.

MEGAN KELLEY is an American film historian currently living in Toronto. She believes the best thing about being a woman is that you never have to mourn the loss of a golden age of female power.

MOBERLEY LUGER is a writer and English teacher living in Montreal. She enjoys the elegant convenience of carrying a purse.

PASHA MALLA's writing pops up sporadically in various places, as if by miracle or accident. While people routinely mistake him for a woman, Pasha is indeed a man. And the best thing about being a man, as we all know, is that men are allowed to vote.

JARRET MCNEILL is a New York City-based writer. He finds the whole idea of gender rather funny and prides himself on not being the typical male. Except the whole sports thing. He loves sports.

DAVID O'MEARA is the author of two books of poetry, Storm still, and The Vicinity. He thinks the best thing about being a man is just the same as with the women: all the boozin' and fightin'. He lives in Ottawa.

LAURA OSBORNE is a Montreal writer who would have been named Rupert if she had been a boy. In no particular order, the best things about being a woman are Pepto-Bismol-pink stilletto heels, lip gloss and (let's be honest) breasts.

MARTIN PATRIQUIN, who lives in Montreal, thinks the best part about being a man is women.

JENNIFER VARKONYI lives in Montreal and thinks the best things about being a girl are having diamonds for best friends, Ladies Night at the bar and free, unlimited calls to love lines.

NATHAN WHITLOCK is a Toronto writer who thinks the best part of being male is always getting first crack at the dead antelope.

BECCA YOUNG is a Vancouver-based graphic designer with a loud phone voice and a winning dance style. She believes that anyone not pointing to the capacity for multiple orgasms as the best thing about being a woman is probably lying.