Urban Disturbances by Bruce McDougall
In Urban Disturbances, his second collection of short fiction, Bruce McDougall writes unaffectedly and persuasively about unexceptional people doing unremarkable things.
The Butcher of Park Ex and Other Semi-Truthful Tales by Andreas Kessaris
The Butcher of Park Ex is a humorous collection of personal stories inspired by the author's life growing up in Montreal's Park Extension neighbourhood, with Greek immigrant parents who never quite adapted to life in their new country.
Czech Techno & Other Stories of Music by Mark Anthony Jarman
If you like your stories to follow a straight line, this quintuplet may give you whiplash. Each one invites you into an introspective world of intense emotions, whether for a woman, 4-track cassette, California in the 90s, or disdain for … Continue reading
The Lightning of Possible Storms by Jonathan Ball
Jonathan Ball’s short fiction collection, The Lightning of Possible Storms, is a volume that exults in the many ways in which it confounds expectations and keeps the reader off-balance. Ball’s stories are brashly eccentric, cynical, surreal and delightfully subversive metafictions.
Boy With a Problem by Chris Benjamin
How does a teenager deal with grief? Where do you turn in the aftermath of tragedy? What can ease the shame of a dark secret? Who can help when things feel helpless? In sparse but emotive prose, Chris Benjamin’s collection … Continue reading
Fontainebleu by Madeline Sonik
In this collection of linked stories (part surreal picaresque, part dark comedy, and part murder mystery) magic meets the mundane as misfits and miscreants struggle to free themselves from untenable situations.
Seeking Shade By Frances Boyle
In Frances Boyle's short story collection Seeking Shade, nuanced characters endure trauma, evolution and epiphany as they face challenges, make decisions, and suffer the inevitable consequences.
Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth: Stories by Christopher Evans
Christopher Evans’s darkly humorous and speculatively tragic collection of stories is peopled by such strays — those struggling with the isolation of nostalgic consumption, the self-sabotage of trauma denial, and easy acquiescence to fragile masculinity
People Like Frank: and other stories from the edge of normal by Jenn Ashton
Jenn Ashton’s short stories are peopled with humble and forward-leaning characters, the collection aptly called People Like Frank.
Like many avid readers, I enjoy a good and satisfying dive into dark waters. I regularly embrace contradictions, twists and moral ambiguity. … Continue reading
2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards: Best Short Fiction Winners!
For 2019, there were only two short fiction books in this particular category, so we declared it a tie. This year, we were blessed with some of the best and imaginative short fiction to choose from. It is difficult to … Continue reading
The End of Me: Stories by John Gould
The End of Me is an astonishing set of sudden stories about the experience of mortality.
2020 Shortlist: “The Very Best!”Short Fiction
Last year, the Best Short Fiction category sported a meagre two titles (mind you, they were excellent ones!) but 2020 proved to be more of a watershed year for good solid, short story collections. Even some ingenious flash fiction was … Continue reading
Seeds and Other Stories by Ursula Pflug
In my years of reading and reviewing, I consider Ursula Pflug one of my “finds”, that is, an author that I enjoy reading and want to read everything he/she produces. I was first introduced to Ms. Pflug by her 2017 … Continue reading
In the Beggarly Style of Imitation by Jean Marc Ah-Sen
Jean Marc Ah-Sen, award-winning author of Grand Menteur — a novel about Mauritian street gangs—, has returned with something new: a collection of short pieces titled In the Beggarly Style of Imitation. Now a novelist and short story writer, Ah-Sen … Continue reading
The Jean Marc Ah-Sen Interview
Marc Ah-Sen is the Toronto-based author of Grand Menteur, which The Globe and Mail selected as a top 100 Best Book in 2015. The National Post has hailed his work as “an inventive escape from the conventional.” His second book, … Continue reading