i'm obsessed with shorts. short. stories.
here are my top reads for 2016. in no particular order, for no particular reason. my reasons for loving a book are divergent. sometimes it’s a premise, a tone, a setting. sometimes it’s where i read the story that means so much. i don’t know. i try not to think about it too much. because. … Read more
i see them standing in the backyards of their shared driveway i see Ivan shuffling out from under the half-open garage door, the snowblower shrouded with orange tarp, piles of bird feed scattered at its clawed feet like black rice at a wedding. he’s carrying a plain, metal scoop shovel. i see Jane with a … Read more
The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh (genre) Toby’s Room by Pat Barker (novel) Night Moves by Richard Van Camp (short stories) How to write a sentence by Stanley Fish (craft) 19 Knives by Mark Anthony Jarman (reread)(short stories) NW by Zadie Smith (novel) Critical Condition by Patrick Finn (criticism)(partial read) The Quick by Barbara Scott … Read more
i used to work nights as a charge nurse, 12-hour shifts. night-shift required training: a certain amount of sleep, a careful titration of coffee, and good nutrition. and when the acuity on the unit was high, i could feel it as soon as i entered the back office. inexplicably, it heated up the skin on … Read more
i’m addicted to short stories. i am. here are a couple CanLit stories that served as inspiration as i wrote and edited my short story collection, How to Pick Up a Maid in Statue Square. “Knife Party” and “Pompeii Book of the Dead,” by Mark A. Jarman, from Knife Party at the Hotel Europa a … Read more