The Journey Prize Stories 28

The Journey Prize Stories 28
Author:
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0771050879

The celebrated annual fiction collection showcasing the best stories by the best new writers in Canada, all contenders for the prestigious $10,000 Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Like the O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and the Best American Short Stories series, The Journey Prize Stories is one of the most celebrated annual literary anthologies in North America. But what makes it unique is its commitment to showcasing the best short stories published each year by some of Canada's most exciting new and emerging writers. For more than 25 years, the anthology has consistently introduced readers to the next generation of great Canadian authors, a tradition that proudly continues with this latest edition. The stories included in the anthology are contenders for the $10,000 Journey Prize, which is made possible by Pulitzer Prize-winning author James A. Michener's donation of Canadian royalties from his novel Journey. The 2016 winner will be announced by the Writers' Trust of Canada in November 2016.

Journey: Celebrating the Journey Prize

Journey: Celebrating the Journey Prize
Author: Various
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2024-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0771007434

A landmark special edition celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Journey Prize. Since its inception in 1989, the Journey Prize anthology has been widely celebrated for introducing readers to a who’s-who of up-and-coming Canadian literary voices, many of whom have gone on to become some of our most beloved writers. This special thirty-fifth-anniversary edition of Canada’s most prestigious annual fiction anthology gathers thirty-one timeless stories from throughout the prize’s history—some contemporary classics, some hidden gems—as chosen by two modern masters of the short story, Souvankham Thammavongsa and Alexander MacLeod, who are themselves previous Journey Prize contributors. After her Olympic ski-jumper husband lifts off but never comes down, a woman counters the world’s doubts with her own leap of faith. A daughter reflects on the simple ritual she shared with her father—and the moment when her unconditional love for him was called into question. An Indigenous Elder recounts an alternative creation story of Ah-damn and Evening to a trio of anthropologists. After months of trying to sell the worthless sports card collection his no-good father left behind, a boy is unprepared for a bizarre encounter with the “pile of human being” who wants to buy a card to complete his collection. A mother and child contend with the strange after-effects of an unusual multi-course meal. Infighting, blatant favouritism, and judging irregularities mar a living-room beauty pageant as four sisters vie for the title of Miss Canada. A carpet collector reimagines his family’s fractured history by weaving new tapestries to tell their stories. The last words of a fifty-year-old pet parakeet leads to the first in a series of unfortunate events. Marvellously eclectic, constantly surprising, and full of vibrant life, these glittering stories speak to the power of the short story and the extraordinary impact the Journey Prize continues to make on Canadian literature. Journey is a gift for readers and writers alike. Featuring an introduction by the editors, and stories by André Alexis, Michael Christie, Alicia Elliott, Jessica Grant, Kevin Hardcastle, Angélique Lalonde, Annabel Lyon, Thomas King, Téa Mutonji, Saleema Nawaz, Heather O'Neill, Eden Robinson, Naben Ruthnum, and Madeleine Thien, among others.

The Journey Prize Stories 32

The Journey Prize Stories 32
Author:
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2020-09-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0771046537

For more than three decades, The Journey Prize Stories has been Canada's most celebrated annual fiction anthology and a who's-who of up-and-coming writers. With settings ranging from a wildlife rescue centre to a Living Body exhibit, the thirteen stories in this collection represent the year's best short fiction by some of our most exciting emerging literary talents. On Sunday afternoons, a coven of teenagers gathers at The Lois Lanes bowling alley to discuss their shared obsession with the second hottest boy in school. A patient joins her therapist and her therapist's granddaughter for an unconventional session--a field trip to confront the reviled Feed Machine. Troubled by dreams and trailed by crows, a woman far from home struggles to confront an old guilt. As a half-remembered Beach Boys song plays in the background, a daughter recalls the man her father used to be through a tender inventory of their time together. In a community plagued by petrochemical-induced diseases and environmental ruin, a man spends his nights caring for his dying partner and his days navigating a dangerous workplace. An android watches her creators' relationship break down before her eyes. A gang of girls roams the streets of a ravaged city, hunting their would-be predators. In her journey to become a woman and a healer, a Cree girl enters the woods alone to learn the stories and medicines of plants, only to be transformed by an unexpected connection. The stories included in this volume are contenders for the $10,000 Writers' Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.

Wilderness Tales

Wilderness Tales
Author: Diana Fuss
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 625
Release: 2023-02-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593318986

A dazzling collection of short stories about North American outdoor life—both classic and contemporary—from James Fenimore Cooper and Jack London to Margaret Atwood and Anthony Doerr and many more. The North American landscape, in its rich and rugged variety, has inspired an equally wide and deep range of fiction over the past centuries. Diana Fuss has gathered a rich collection of timeless classics and contemporary discoveries summoning up our close and imagined encounters with all things wild. From the nineteenth century’s Washington Irving (“Rip Van Winkle”) to the twenty-first century’s Ted Chiang (“The Great Silence”)—a panoramic view of wilderness fiction, from Gothic tales of mystery and suspense (“The Heroic Slave” by Frederick Douglass), to tales of danger and survival (“Walking Out” by David Quammen); from modern tales of retreat and solitude (“Happiness” by Ron Carlson), to never-before-told tales of our new reality—of environment and extinction (“the river” by adrienne maree brown): these are stories that reveal the many ways in which the American literary landscape has shaped—and is shaped by—our conceptions of the wild. Diana Fuss nimbly shows, in her introductory text and commentary throughout, the development of the wilderness story, from its emergence in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and James Fenimore Cooper (“A Panther Tale”), to the height of its popularity in the stories of Jack London (“To Build a Fire”), to the environmentally conscious writing of T. C. Boyle (“After the Plague”) and Karen Russell (“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”). Among those whose work appears in the collection: Wallace Stegner, Annie Proulx, Ambrose Bierce, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, L. Frank Baum, Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Ray Bradbury.

How to Pronounce Knife

How to Pronounce Knife
Author: Souvankham Thammavongsa
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316422118

A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize, this revelatory story collection honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her stunning debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do—brightly, ferociously, unforgettably. Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation. “As the daughter of refugees, I’m able to finally see myself in stories.” —Angela So, Electric Literature

Simple Recipes

Simple Recipes
Author: Madeleine Thien
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2009-10-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316087130

With delicate language and wisdom, Madeleine Thien explores the longing of families pulled apart by conflicts between generations, cultures, and values.Each of these stories captures a deeply personal world in which characters struggle to reconcile family loyalty with individual desires. In "House," a 10-year-old girl longs for the alcoholic mother who left the house one day never to return. In "Dispatch," a woman tries to hold her marriage together even after finding proof that her husband is in love with someone else. In "A Map of the City, " a young woman's troubled relationship with her father overshadows the course she takes in her adult life. Thien's fresh perspective and spare, haunting prose have already won her prizes and the praise of established masters. "Simple Recipes" is the beginning of a luminous writing career.

Dogs at the Perimeter

Dogs at the Perimeter
Author: Madeleine Thien
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2011-05-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0771084102

“Remember this night,” he said. “Mark it in your memories because tomorrow everything changes.” One starless night, a girl’s childhood was swept away by the terrors of the Khmer Rouge. Exiled from the city, she and her family were forced to live out in the open under constant surveillance. Each night, people were taken away. Caught up in a political storm which brought starvation to millions, tore families apart, and changed the world forever, she lost everyone she loved. Three decades later, Janie’s life in Montreal is unravelling. Haunted by her past, she has abandoned her husband and son and taken refuge in the home of her friend, the brilliant, troubled scientist, Hiroji Matsui. In 1970, Hiroji’s brother, James, travelled to Cambodia and fell in love. Five years later, the Khmer Rouge came to power, and James vanished. Brought together by the losses they endured, Janie and Hiroji had found solace in each another. And then, one strange day, Hiroji disappeared. Engulfed by the memories she thought she had fled, Janie must struggle to find grace in a world overshadowed by the sorrows of her past. Beautifully realized, deeply affecting, Dogs at the Perimeter evokes totalitarianism through the eyes of a little girl and draws a remarkable map of the mind’s battle with memory, loss, and the horrors of war. It confirms Madeleine Thien as one of the most gifted and powerful novelists writing today.