Transition magazine has announced its Issue 124. Titled “Writing Black Canadas,” the issue marks the Canadian confederation’s 150th anniversary and celebrates over four hundred years of Black presence in Canada. It contains a profile of Toni Morrison by Sarah Ladipo Manyika and a tribute to F. Abiola Irele by Wole Soyinka.

In issue 124, “Writing Black Canadas,” we highlight  Rinaldo Walcott’s observation that “Black Canada is not one thing. It’s multiple moments of Blackness. It’s multiple relations to the nation space. It’s multiple points of arrival. It’s a set of different histories.” Guest editors Phanuel Antwi and David Chariandy  present glimpses of a robust living archive of Black Canadian writing, highlighting critical thought, cultural memory, formal innovation, and radical intimacy that channels the global sweep of the diaspora.

Profiles of two formidable women of letters—Toni Morrison and Toi Derricotte—round out the issue, while works of short fiction by Olufunke Ogundimu  and Christian Ojochegbe Jacob speak again to the theme of Fear. In this issue, we also honor the memory of F. Abiola Irele—former Transition editor and renowned scholar of francophone African and Caribbean literature—with tributes from Wole Soyinka, and other colleagues and admirers.

A publication of Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Transition has, since its founding in 1961, always taken a lead in facing political questions. It was the major platform for African writers in the ’60s and ’70s, and continues to be a go-to space for African-African American consultation. Tope Folarin’s 2013 Caine Prize winning “Miracle” was published in the magazine, as was Bernard Matambo’s Best American Essays inclusion, “Working the City.” Both writers are currently shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Literary Awards.

Transition‘s editorial team comprises: Alejandro de la Fuente, Director of Harvard’s Afro-Latin American Research Institute, as Editor; Sara Bruya as Managing Editor, a role she holds at Du Bois Review; Nicole Terez Dutton as Senior Editor; Nikki Greene as Visual Arts Editor; and Jovonna Jones as Visual Arts and Social Media Assistant.

This year, Transition‘s Issue 122, “White A$$holes,” was a response to Trump. It was followed by their Issue 123, “Fear,” a collaboration with Jalada Africa which is the collective’s Issue 05. Their Issue 121 is themed “Childhood”; their Issue 120, “You Are Next”; Issue 119, “Afro-Asian Worlds”; Issue 118, “I Can Be Lightning”; 117, “New African Fiction”; 116, “Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela”; 115, “Mad”; 114, “Gay Nigeria”; 113, “What Is Africa to Me Now?”; 112, “The Django Issue”; 111, “New Narratives of Haiti”; 110, “Fais Do-Do”; 109, “Persona”; 108, “Boogie Man”; 107, “Blending Borders”; their Issue 106 marked the magazine’s 50th anniversary in 2011; 105, “Blacks, Jews, and Black Jews”; 104, “Souls”; 103, “Cabo Verde”; and 102, “Let There Be Light.”

Get the issue HERE.