May is Short Story Month — here are 14 Canadian collections to check out
May is Short Story Month. Celebrate by checking out one of these great Canadian short story collections.
Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality by Lindsay Wong
Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality is a collection of "immigrant horror stories." From Shanghai to Vancouver, the women in Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality haunt and are haunted — by first loves, troublesome family members and traumatic memories.
- Lindsay Wong writes 'immigrant horror stories' in new book Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality
Lindsay Wong is a Vancouver-based author. She holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in literary nonfiction from Columbia University. Wong's memoir The Woo-Woo was a finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and was defended by Joe Zee on Canada Reads 2019. CBC Books named Wong a writer to watch in 2019 and My Summer of Love and Misfortune, her first YA novel, was published in 2020.
Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood's latest is a collection of 15 stories that use story — and Atwood's signature intellect and wit — to speak to our modern times. At the centre of the collection are seven stories about a couple through the decades, mapping how their life evolves through the mundane and the extraordinary.
Margaret Atwood is a celebrated Canadian writer who has published fiction, nonfiction, poetry and comics. Her acclaimed books include The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake and The Edible Woman. She has won several awards for her work including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Booker Prize. She is also a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada.
Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese
Chrysalis is a short story collection that examines the ways in which racialized women are undermined and exploited and the ways in which they reclaim their power. Blending realism with elements of fantasy, Varghese tells stories of a woman dying in her sleep repeatedly until she finds an unexpected refuge or a couple in a broken marriage encountering spiritual direction. Each story looks at family, sexuality, cultural norms and the ties that bind.
Varghese is a Hamilton, Ont.-based writer and editor. Her stories have been recognized in the Prism International Short Fiction Contest and the Alice Munro Festival Short Story Competition and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Chrysalis is her first book.
The Whole Animal by Corinna Chong
The Whole Animal is a collection of short stories that examines the power, strangeness and attributes of human and animal bodies. Chong exposes themes of loneliness, loss and self-discovery through stories like that of a child fixating on the hair growing out of her mother's eyelid or a linguist's attempts to connect with a boy who cannot speak.
Originally from Calgary, Corinna Chong lives in Kelowna, B.C. and teaches English and fine arts at Okanagan College. She published her first novel Belinda's Rings in 2013. Her short fiction has been published in magazines across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Room, Grain and The Humber Literary Review.
In 2021, she won the CBC Short Story Prize for Kids in Kindergarten, which appears in The Whole Animal.
Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton
Instructions for the Drowning is a short story collection that explores themes of love and fear, delusion and idealism and the ironic ways we come up short despite trying our very best. In one, a man remembers his father's instructions for how to save someone who is drowning, but then finds himself conflicted when the moment arrives to act. In another, a man fixated by stories of freak accidents ends up bearing the brunt of one himself.
Steven Heighton was an award-winning Ontario novelist, short story writer and poet. He debuted in 1989 with Stalin's Carnival, a poetry collection that earned him the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. His next work, The Ecstasy of Skeptics, was shortlisted for the 1995 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. He received the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for The Waking Comes Late. His recent books include Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos, a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and Selected Poems 1983-2020. In 2021, Heighton released his first album, The Devil's Share. Heighton died in April 2022.
Places Like These by Lauren Carter
Places Like These is a short story collection that covers the globe — from Ecuador to San Francisco to small-town Ontario or northern Manitoba. From a teenager dealing with the emotional toll of the oncoming climate crisis to a widow searching for her late husband through a spiritual guide or a sexual assault survivor navigating her boundaries and the expectations of her boyfriend's family, each story paints a portrait of a character longing for connection and confronting their demons.
Lauren Carter writes, teaches writing and mentors other writers. She is the author of four books of fiction, including This Has Nothing to Do with You, which won the 2020 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. She has also received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. Her short story Rhubarb won the Prairie Fire Fiction Award. Her debut novel, Swarm, was longlisted for Canada Reads 2014. In 2017, Carter made the CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Lie Down Within the Night. She was previously longlisted for the 2013 CBC Poetry Prize for Migration (1851-1882) and longlisted for the 2015 CBC Short Story Prize for River's Edge. She was raised in Ontario and now lives just outside of Winnipeg.
The Private Apartments by Idman Nur Omar
The Private Apartments is a series of stories about Somali immigrants and their will to survive despite the racism, displacement, trauma and isolation they endure. From a wife who escapes her broken marriage by attending weddings to a young mother who forms friendships in her community housing project, each character showcases the hope, persistence and beauty of these people.
Idman Nur Omar is a Calagry-based writer who also teaches at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in the communication and liberal arts department.
This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise
This Time, That Place is the latest short story collection from Clark Blaise. The collection brings together 24 stories written over the course of Blaise's career, taking readers to Montreal, Florida, Pittsburgh and more. This Time, That Place demonstrates why Blaise is one of Canada's greatest short story writers.
Blaise is a Canadian American writer who has written more than two dozen books. His other books include the short story collections A North American Education and The Meagre Tarmac, the novels Lunar Attractions and If I Were Me and the memoirs Days and Nights in Calcutta and I had a Father. In 2010, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
In Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, a collection of short stories, Kim Fu turns the familiar on its head to weave tales of new worlds where strange happenings, like a girl growing wings on her legs or toy boxes that control the passage of time, are the ordinary trappings of everyday life. The stories deal with themes of death, technological consequence, guilt and sexuality and unmask the contradictions within humanity.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century was shortlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Fu is a Washington-based, Canadian-born fiction writer and poet. She has published two other works of fiction, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, and a book of poetry called How Festive the Ambulance.
Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage
The characters in Stray Dogs, a short story collection, are restless travellers, moving between nation states and states of mind, seeking connection and trying to escape the past. Set in Montreal, Beirut, Tokyo and more, these stories highlight the often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed and reborn.
Stray Dogs was shortlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Rawi Hage is a Montreal-based writer. His books include De Niro's Game, Cockroach, Carnival and Beirut Hellfire Society. Cockroach was defended by Samantha Bee on Canada Reads 2014.
Animal Person by Alexander MacLeod
The stories in Alexander MacLeod's latest collection explore the struggle for meaning and connection in an age where many of us feel cut off from so much, including ourselves. From two sisters having a petty argument to a family on the brink of a new life, these stories pick at the complexity of our shared human experience.
Alexander MacLeod is a short story writer and academic from Cape Breton and raised in Windsor, Ont. MacLeod's debut short story collection Light Lifting was shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Prize. It won the Atlantic Book Award. In 2019, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story Lagomorph. He currently lives in Dartmouth, N.S.
Ezra's Ghosts by Darcy Tamayose
In Ezra's Ghosts, a collection of fantastical stories, Darcy Tamayose introduces a cast of characters whose lives intersect in a quiet prairie town called Ezra. From a seeker of truth trapped in Ezra after her violent death, to the oldest man in town who came to Canada to escape imperial hardships, the stories in Ezra's Ghosts are linked by language, culture and grief.
Ezra's Ghosts was a finalist for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Darcy Tamayose is a writer and graphic designer from southern Alberta. Her work includes the novel, Odori and the YA book Katie Be Quiet. Tamayose lives in Lethbridge, Alta.
Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
Her First Palestinian is a debut collection of short stories revolving around the Palestinian immigrant experience in Canada. The stories explore themes of identity, loss, power and belonging as they look at the diverse and layered experiences of the Palestinian diaspora. One of the stories in the collection, the titular Her First Palestinian, was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.
Her First Palestinian was a finalist for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Saeed Teebi is a writer and lawyer based in Toronto. He was born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait and, after some time in the U.S., has lived in Canada since 1993. Her First Palestinian is his first book.
Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel
In the short story collection Buffalo is the New Buffalo, Chelsea Vowel explores science fiction tropes through a Métis lens. From a rougarou (shapeshifter) in the 19th century trying to solve a murder in her community to a Métis man who's gored by a radioactive bison and gains super strength, these stories seek to understand the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage and recover ancestral traditions. Buffalo is the New Buffalo explores Indigenous existence and resistance and rewrites our shared history.
Vowel is a Métis writer and educator whose work focuses on language, gender identity and cultural resurgence. She is also the author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, which addresses stereotypes and assumptions about Indigenous issues and offers insight into the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. She also contributed to graphic novel, This Place, which was adapted into a 10-episode podcast for CBC Books.
