31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 17: “Once Removed” by Alexander MacLeod
Like Alice Munro, MacLeod has the ability to build whole lives in a compressed space and to subtly shift a story’s focus and meaning without apparent effort.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 14: “Devotion” by Sharon English
English’s story excavates the chasm that exists between two halves of a couple, a gulf that is exposed by the death of the pair’s dog.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 12: “The Stunt” by Michael LaPointe
In this chilly story, three men do battle for the soul of a fifteen-year-old film star.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 11: “Come and Get Your Ice Cream, Motherfuckers” by Francine Cunningham
An ice cream truck driver faces mental anguish resulting from his inability to escape the incessant jingle of his vehicle’s music.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 9: “An Orchid, Blooming” by Kathy Friedman
In Friedman’s story, family secrets, like orchids, flourish in darkness.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 8: “A Survey of Recent American Happenings Told Through Six Commercials for the Tennyson Clearjet Premium Touchless Bidet” by Omar El Akkad
In a brief and barbed satire, Giller winner Omar El Akkad links our current geopolitical malaise with the capitalist impulse to sell stuff.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 3: “The People Across the Canyon” by Margaret Millar
Millar’s story, ostensibly a psychological drama, is in fact a trenchant satire on the pernicious attractions of a particular kind of American dream.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 2: “Little Green Men” by Elaine McCluskey
Set in a tiny fishing village on Canada’s east coast, the story limns the distance between fact and supposition.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 1: “The Dead Are More Visible” by Steven Heighton
One of the author’s best, this story interrogates the notion of societal visibility through the prism of a middle-aged-woman working as a labourer flooding ice rinks in the middle of the night.
31 Days of Stories 2022: Introduction
If the novel is a regal lion king, the short story is a cackling hyena.