Canadian literature continues to thrive with a fresh wave of short story collections that promise to captivate readers. Here are five new releases that deserve a spot on your reading list.
From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall: Stories of Canada by Whit Fraser
For decades, journalist Whit Fraser had a front-row seat to major news events across Canada's North. Many of those stories resonate today. Fraser was with the CBC in Yellowknife in January 1978 when the Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 crashed, scattering radioactive debris over a vast area of the Northwest Territories. While there was little follow-up at the time, that crash has since been linked to higher cancer rates in Dene communities and to a rare cancer in a former RCMP member who guarded a debris site. Fraser also covers maritime disasters, plane crashes, and social injustice, but he shares lighter tales too: listening to a hockey game over shortwave radio in Iqaluit in 1967, when it was so cold in the Canadian Legion that beer had to be stored in a refrigerator to keep it from freezing. The collection also includes adventures with his second wife, Governor General Mary Simon, including a near-disastrous New Year's Eve fireworks escapade when she was Canada's ambassador to Denmark.
Rough Description: Love Letters and Ghost Stories From a Life In Music by Don Pyle
Punk rocker, composer, photographer, barber, drummer, and co-founder of the band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Don Pyle has led an extraordinary life. In this collection, he shares poignant, funny, endearing, and infuriating stories about hairstyling school, working with Kids in the Hall, losing dear friends, coming out, and making questionable sartorial choices. It's a raw and honest look at a life in music.
Meanwhile, Back in Nokomis: Tales from Canada and Elsewhere by Will Ferguson
Three-time Leacock Medal for Humour winner Will Ferguson delivers levity with this new collection. The author of several previous collections, including Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw and Canadian History for Dummies, returns with a fresh bundle of comedy joy. He regales readers with tales of life on the road as a travel writer, thoughts on Confederation Bridge, Canadian condiments, getting butt naked for a radio interview, and much more.
There's Always More to Say by Natalie Southworth
Two sisters choose different coping strategies when their mother's mental illness disrupts their lives as young teens. One escapes, and the other stays. As adults, they experience mental turmoil of their own in a connected story. Elsewhere, another child has no option but to ride along through the ups and many downs of a beloved father's miserable career in sales. Bleak houses abound, but these stories are surprisingly relatable.
