My last short story post was in Autumn 2013 and focussed on recently published collections (Rosemary Nixon's Are You Ready to be Lucky? Elisabeth de Mariaffi’s How to Get Along with Women, and Shaena Lambert’s Oh, My Darling). Cormorant Books, 2000 In recent weeks I have been dabbling in some volumes on my shelves,
Although the Journey Prize is now synonymous with the idea of quality short fiction in Canada, not everyone realizes that the prize was established out of James Michener's donation of his royalty earnings from his 1988 novel Journey. Michener's novel was set partly in northwestern Canada, but the stories in
Reading Hellgoing makes me wonder about Lynn Coady's personal relationships. Not for the obvious reasons that other readers might identify, stories like "Body Condom" and "Play the Monster Blind". But because I imagine that in order to write a short story, she disappears for a spell. I imagine she crawls
"But you better not cross him or he’ll skin you alive....Like he does with his other stuff." 1994; Penguin, 2007 Liza's father warned her about Ladner, who made his living as a taxidermist, working for museums. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Indeed, after that, Liza and
What sets Ayelet Tsabari's collection apart is the ever-present sense of motion in the stories, even when the characters themselves are struggling with a sense of inertia. Harper Collins, 2013 I know, I know: that sounds impossible. But even when the characters appear to be stagnant in some
