Fans of the Newfoundland Quarterly are starting to get antsy.

It’s the time of year when subscribers of Canada’s second oldest publication squeeze their lucky pennies tight and cross all their fingers (and toes) in the ardent hope their name will be pulled out of a hat for the annual Jean Claude Roy painting draw.

The painter has donated a large-scale oil work each year for the past seven years in support of generating subscriptions to the publication. Editor Joan Sullivan says the world-renowned artist’s generosity is “invaluable” to Memorial’s quarterly literary magazine.

“Yes, it is exciting,” she said. “In the past few years we've done the draw on CBC Radio’s On The Go with Ted Blades. We often have a celebrity do the honours; both Lynda Boyd and Mark O'Brien of Republic of Doyle have done this for us. Sometimes the winner hears their name drawn on the radio, sometimes a friend does and calls them, sometimes they don't know until we contact them after the broadcast, but they usually react like they've won the lottery.”

Anyone who buys or gives a subscription before midnight on Tuesday, March 31, is eligible to be entered into the draw for Mr. Roy’s Torngat Basecamp, with the winning entry drawn shortly thereafter.

For the remaining 1,000 or so subscribers whose names aren’t drawn, they will receive a content-packed spring issue in the mail to divert themselves with come April 1.

The issue explores the theme of climate change. The Discovery Channel’s Cold Water Cowboy Richard Gillett – who captains the Midnight Shadow out of Twillingate – discusses how increasing ocean temperatures are affecting the fishing season and harvests; visual artist Gary L. Saunders shares his observations, verbally and in illustrations, of changing icebergs off the coast close to his Newfoundland summer home; and photographer Alona Penton-Power’s photo essay depicts scenes of larger-than-life skies, ice and more.

Non-themed articles include a humorous account from Adam Clarke on his work as "human background" in the CBC-TV movie Diverted, poetry by Aley Waterman and book reviews of Edward Roberts's A Blue Puttee at War: The Memoir of Captain Sydney Frost and Doug Letto's Last Prime Minister, among others.

In addition to the big draw and the spring issue release, the Newfoundland Quarterly is hosting a staged reading of Rig, Mike Heffernan’s oral history of the Ocean Ranger disaster, in Corner Brook. The reading will include six theatre students from Grenfell Campus’s fine arts program and will be held at the Rotary Arts Centre on Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information or to subscribe to the Newfoundland Quarterly, visit ED-4001 on the St. John’s campus, telephone 709-864-2426 or email nfqsub@mun.ca