books i read in 2016

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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

those fucking judy’s

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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

expats behaving badly

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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

eyeliner, black

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i need eyeliner, black. like any teenage girl with an ounce of self-respect, i steal it from the drugstore. under the watchful eye of the pharmacist, Mr. Greenwood, i edge past the magazine rack, read the labels of shampoos before arriving at the heaven that is drugstore makeup. apply lipstick, red, redder, reddest. pretend I’m … Read more