Clark Blaise's The Meagre Tarmac Biblioasis, 2011 The quote from Margaret Atwood on the back of this collection identifies Clark Blaise as a "master storyteller and border-crosser". This might refer to the national borders that the characters cross in the eleven stories in this collection. It might also refer to
Michael Christie's The Beggar's Garden Harper-Collins, 2011 Although the title for Michael Christie's story collection is drawn from the final story, it might well have been pulled from the second story's title, "Discard". It's at the heart of this debut collection: that which has been left behind, tossed out, put
Alexi Zentner's Touch Knopf, 2011 It seems like stating the obvious, but Touch is all about storytelling. Sure, all novels are fiction. They all contain stories. But they aren't all about storytelling. However, Alexi Zentner's novel is just that. "I felt like I knew him already. I'd heard so many
You might remember that I've been sampling books from Indie presses that have been shortlisted for this year's ReLit Awards. Not just novels, but short stories, even poetry (which is adventurous for me). For a month of Sundays (at least), I'm Buried in ReLit Print. I Still Don’t Even Know You, Michelle Berry
Hearing the author read at Toronto's Word on the Street festival this year truly highlighted the humour of this novel. (It's hard to find funny novels, isn't it?! Apparently the judges thought so too, and wanted to make sure this one got noticed.) But even straight from the
