Toronto author Camilla Gibb’s contribution to Descant magazine’s upcoming September 29th fundraiser has gone missing.
In keeping with this year’s Cuban theme, Descant asked a few celebrated authors to decorate cigar boxes for a silent auction. Gibb decorated hers with images from a guidebook that she used while travelling in Ethiopia and photos from her journey. Inside, she placed a copy of her novel Sweetness in the Belly, which was set in Ethiopia. On August 17, rushing to leave for Edmonton, Gibb hand-delivered the decorated box in a manila envelope to the doorstep of Descant employee Mary Newbury’s home on Major Street in Toronto. Unfortunately, when Newbury arrived home shortly after, it had vanished without a trace.
“It’s of no material worth, really, but making it was this intimate act,” Gibb says of her artwork. “It isn’t something I felt I could re-create. I felt really disheartened.” She added, “The only scenario I could imagine was that some kid had found it and thought it was pretty.”
And thus, Quillblog embarks on a new beat of investigative work. If anyone has any clues as to the whereabouts of Gibb’s cigar box, you can contact our anonymous tip line or call Q&Q. We’re painting our name on the glass of the office door and donning fedoras and trench coats now.
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