After nine years with Maisonneuve, editor-in-chief Carmine Starnino has decided to seek a new challenge: he is now a senior editor at Reader's Digest, Canada's largest-circulation magazine. Starnino, who co-founded Maisonneuve with Derek Webster in 2002, has been working as a part-time editor with Reader's Digest for the last year. He will now join Webster, the managing editor at Reader's Digest since 2009. 

"It's heartbreaking to leave Maisonneuve. So much of my identity is bound up with this organization," Starnino says. "Four times a year, bleary-eyed and over-stressed, we scrambled to produce one of the best magazines in the country. It's been exhilarating. But the opportunity to work editorially with Derek again, on the scale of a magazine like Reader's Digest, was too good to pass up."

Drew Nelles is Maisonneuve's new editor-in-chief. A Maisonneuve team member since 2009, Nelles has also worked in web editorial and book publishing, and has written for a variety of Canadian publications. Madeline Coleman, who comes to Maisonneuve from Concordia's the Link, is stepping in as associate editor. Starnino praised Nelles' and Coleman's "outstanding" contributions to Maisonneuve, and looked forward to their fresh editorial vision for the magazine.

"Drew and Madeline are exemplary editors, two of the best I've worked with, and that's saying a lot given the incredible talent that has passed through our doors," Starnino says.

An award-winning poet, Carmine Starnino has written four collections of poetry. His most recent book, This Way Out (2009), was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry. Starnino will stay on the Maisonneuve board of directors and will be an editor-at-large for the magazine.

Maisonneuve will continue its quarterly publishing schedule under the direction of publisher Jennifer Varkonyi, and Anna Minzhulina will stay on as art director. In 2010, Maisonneuve was nominated for ten National Magazine Awards, including Magazine of the Year.

The Spring 2011 Issue—Nelles' first as editor-in-chief—includes new writing by Sheila Heti, Pasha Malla, Naheed Mustafa, Ira Basen and rapper Cadence Weapon. "Captain Poetry,"  Starnino's essay on legendary poet bpNichol, will also appear. The issue will be on newsstands March 25.

For more information or to purchase a copy of Maisonneuve's Spring 2011 Issue, email office [at] maisonneuve.org or call 514-482-5089. Maisonneuve will launch the issue with a concert featuring the Youjsh, Flow Child, Cadence Weapon, and Wind-Up People on April 5 at Divan Orange in Montreal.

Related on maisonneuve.org:

—Our Spring 2011 Issue
—Founder Bids Adieu
—Spring 2011 Launch: Facebook Event

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