Black Fruit’s Vision
You may be wondering why we are called Black Fruit Press.
The inaugural workshop and accompanying zine are the first flowers in what we hope will be a bountiful harvest of new literature. Eventually, we plan to champion a broad spectrum of 2SLGBTQ+ and BIPOC writers from many genres.
Our goal is to provide a space where writers can learn from each other and readers can discover their new favourite book. In these future pages, we hope to blend the best of poetry, prose, and visual art. Stay tuned!
Have a question? Get in touch!
Meet the Black Fruit Team!
Brian Rigg, Managing Editor. Brian is a Jamaican/Canadian poet based in Toronto and a QTRL writer-in-residence. His poems have been published in magazines from the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. They have also been anthologized in Ma’ka, Diasporic Juks: Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent (Sister Vision Press) and Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets (Arsenal Pulp Press). A False Paradise, his first collection of poetry, was published by ECW Press in 2001. His latest work, Soft Animals, was published in 2021 by Steel Toe Books and is available on Amazon.
Madeleine Vien, Research Assistant. Madeleine is an Otipemisiwak poet residing in Toronto, Ontario. She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Sexual Diversity Studies at The University of Toronto and is a research assistant for Brian Rigg at the Queer and Trans Research Lab. Through her poetry, Madeleine explores themes of transition, the enduring rhythms of nature, and the quest for identity and belonging.
Alan Wright, Producing Editor. Alan is an honours graduate in English from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. He also studied professional writing and communications at Humber College. In 2022, Alan was a publishing editor on the Humber Literary Review’s Spotlight #4 issue.
Land Acknowledgement
At Black Fruit Press, we recognize that Toronto is built upon traditional Indigenous territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.
We also acknowledge that both Treaty 13, signed with the Mississaugas, and the Williams Treaties, signed with the Mississaugas and Chippewa, cover the area of modern-day Toronto.
We are grateful to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples who have cared for these lands since time immemorial. We also acknowledge our role in dismantling settler colonial structures in this place we call home.
Black Fruit Press 