Hot Soup: A New Zine and Celebration of Creativity

Hot Soup is a literary magazine that has lurked into the Fredericton and Ottawa writing communities, showcasing talent in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, photography, paintings, drawings, sheet music, song lyrics, collages, and more. Courtney Buder (she/they) reported that she and Wynn Libby (he/him) founded Hot Soup in 2025 “to make a space where the creative people in our orbit can celebrate each other.” 

Buder is an English student at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton, and the Treasurer of the Albert Ross Undergraduate English Society. She also serves on the board of the 203 Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity. 

Buder describes Hot Soup as a “passion project,” that she, along with Libby, put their own funds into getting off the ground. Buder says they hope to eventually receive grant funding to “pay contributors and do more with our limited print runs.” 

Hot Soup’s two issues are accessible for free online, and submissions are now open for issue 3 (Spring) for release in April 2026. 

Limited print issues of Hot Soup are available for sale in local shops such as Bellwether in downtown Fredericton; fairs such as HalloZine organized by Wyrdsmyth Press in Ottawa; and often for free in Carleton Hall at UNB. All funds acquired from these issues goes back into printing costs. Buder and Libby noted they are “committed to proceeding in such a way as to prioritise the joy and passion of this project over profit,” while being transparent about their finances. 

Buder described her experience thus far working on Hot Soup: 

“We aren’t even one year into this yet, but the support, excitement, and creative energy we have been privileged to share in have been endlessly rewarding and inspiring.” 

Buder also acknowledged Hot Soup’s readership as part of the myriad of creative people that make the magazine possible, especially in the print format. 

“Print periodicals are a really nice and tangible testament to the time everyone puts towards being creative together in a particular time and space.” 

In the two existing issues of Hot Soup, the editors have prompted the readership to contribute to a charity. In the first issue, Buder recommended that proceeds go to Wolastowey language immersion school, Kehkimin. Buder believes, “those (including myself) who are settlers inhabiting Indigenous territory have a responsibility to think about what that really means and to be intentional about how we live our lives and engage with the local world.” In the second edition, Libby requested the proceeds go to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). 

Buder shed light on why Hot Soup directs attention toward much needed causes: 

“With any kind of project that brings people together or calls for people’s attention, I feel an opportunity is created to make the world a little bit less hostile.”

Currently, Hot Soup’s column “The Simmer” is in the works, which Buder says is “a less rigorously artistic category intended to offer the broader community the opportunity to participate by contributing soup recipes, restaurant reviews, commentary, and anything else directly or tangentially soup-related.” 

To submit to Hot Soup issue 3, please visit https://www.hotsoupmagazine.ca/general-submissions.