Fiction
13: Best Canadian Stories
Edited by John Metcalf
The stories in this book come from such writers as Clark Blaise, whose work has defined the form for a generation. They come from such experienced writers as Caroline Adderson. But, much more surprisingly, they come from such entirely new writers as Valerie Spencer, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Kathryn Mulvihill and Heather Davidson. Where did Valerie Spencer get her comic sparkle? Where did Zoey Leigh Peterson find her sure and subtle hand? Where did Kathryn Mulvihill get her fictional vision? Where did Heather Davidson find her poetic power? Read the book and find out.
8.5 by 5.5 by 167 pages, cover by Alexej von Jawlensky
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1402 7
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1403 4
ISSN 0703 9476
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Contributors: Valerie Spencer, Caroline Adderson, Marjorie Celona, Kathryn Mulvihill, Alice Petersen, Patricia Robertson, Heather Davidson, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Cynthia Flood, Clark Blaise
“The arrival, late in the fall each year, of this Oberon collection is always cause for fanfare”—Quill & Quire.
“A literary institution”—Ottawa Citizen.
Coming Attractions 13
Edited by Mark Anthony Jarman
 | We have all heard of Shana Myara through her columns in Georgia Straight. Actually, she is better known for her short fiction, which displays an uncommon wit and a rare sensitivity to voice and speech. Like Shana Myara, Clea Young comes from the West and is currently working on a collection of stories. Her writing is clear and sharply observed, and almost always laced with humour. James Scoles spent a decade travelling before he began to write seriously. He can be savage or hilarious as the mood takes him. All three writers are bright and brash, though each can also be loving and tender.
8.5 by 5.5 by 127 pages, cover by Vanessa Bell
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1404 1
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1405 8
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New writers who first appeared in Coming Attractions include Rohinton Mistry, Frances Itani, Peter Behrens, Lisa Moore, Dennis Bock, Neil Smith, Diane Schoemperlen, Timothy Taylor, Bonnie Burnard, Sharon Butala, Steven Heighton, Mary Swan, Caroline Adderson, Rebecca Rosenblum, Gayla Reid, Alexander MacLeod.
“Reading Coming Attractions is like test-driving the year’s new cars”—London Free Press.
“Coming Attractions is a who’s who of our best young writers”—The Fiddlehead.
Charlie Tallulah
Gerard Beirne
It seems to Charlie that his life never quite adds up, never quite makes sense. There are bad guys in Charlie’s world, but he is not one of them. Who then is Charlie Tallulah? He himself is still trying to answer that question, but he can’t because his life is really nothing but a work in progress. Gerard Beirne was born in Ireland and now lives in New Brunswick. This is his fifth book. His most recent work, Games of Chance, appeared under the Oberon imprint in 2011.
8.5 by 5.5 by 157 pages, cover by Keith Vaughan
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1406 5
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1408 9
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Gerard Beirne was born in 1962, completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University in 1992, and now lives in Fredericton, NB. He is the author of two earlier novels, The Eskimo in the Net and Turtle, two collections of poems, Digging My Own Grave and Games of Chance, several stories, a CD and a play for chamber orchestra. He has won a number of awards, including Hennessey’s New Writer of the Year.
“Although very much a sexy action-adventure across the Canadian Prairies, Charlie Tallulah is really about storytelling. The thing about Beirne’s enigmatic protagonist is that Charlie is entirely comfortable with his life being a story, a fiction, something he can reinvent as needed. The result is a well-crafted anti-hero”—Saint John Telegraph-Journal.
Desire Lines:
Stories of Love & Geography
Mary Soderstrom
 | Desire lines are the paths people take when they want to go somewhere. Often they are maps of the heart, in other words, the paths people take when they’re looking to love or to be loved. These stories highlight truths that most of us prefer to ignore, and maybe that is one of the functions of art. This is what the critics say of Mary Soderstrom’s previous work. She has “the grace and sweep of the best novelists” (Ottawa Citizen). “A gem of a collection” (Globe & Mail). “There just aren’t enough stories out there that are this good” (Montreal Mirror). Desire Lines is Mary Soderstrom’s thirteenth published book.
8.5 by 5.5 by 155 pages, cover by Edwin Holgate
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1409 6
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1411 9
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Mary Soderstrom is the author of four books of non-fiction, three story collections, five novels and a children’s book. Her stories have appeared in such publications as Queen’s Quarterly, The North American Review and Fiddlehead, and she has been short-listed for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, the Books in Canada First Novel Award and, most recently, POP Montreal and Matrix Magazine’s 2012 LitPOP award.
“Characters that are fascinating, complex, and refreshingly diverse. Soderstrom employs a wonderful economy of language, so that much is conveyed in a relatively short space...sensitive, attentive, and compelling”—Montreal Review of Books.
“This collection is not to be missed”—Quill & Quire.
Interpreters
Ron Schafrick
Of this book Ron Schafrick has this to say: “Interpreters is peopled with characters who are not only interpreting other people’s words across cultures and languages, but also trying to make sense of the stories they themselves are being told.” No-one has any answers, of course, only questions. Most of them are strangers to Canada and several are gay. They all believe that happiness or love or even respect are to be found somewhere else. Ron Schafrick grew up in Ontario, where he has written and published many stories. He has already been nominated for the Journey Prize.
8.5 by 5.5 by 128 pages, cover by Sonia Delaunay
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1414 0
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1415 7
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Ron Schafrick was born and grew up in Welland, Ontario, and studied English and history at Carleton and Concordia before travelling to Korea to teach English. Over the next nine years he visited Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. Since returning to Canada, he has been teaching at Centennial College in Toronto. His stories have been published in The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review, Asia Literary Review, The Prairie Journal, FreeFall, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review and The Toronto Quarterly.
The Secret Life of Fission
Paul Carlucci
 | This is a first collection of stories by a young writer who has lived on most of the frontiers of Canada, from Labrador to the Northwest Territories. He has often appeared in Descant and other literary magazines and been nominated for a number of prizes. His stories explore the lives of people who have lost their way, whose conscience is no longer heard, whose existence has little point. Carlucci is not a comfortable writer, but he’s an important new voice on the Canadian scene, a voice that deserves to be heard.
8.5 by 5.5 by 126 pages, cover by Keith Vaughan
$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1412 6
$19.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1413 3
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Paul Carlucci grew up in Deep River, Ontario, studied journalism at Sheridan College, and since then has lived in Labrador, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, BC and the Northwest Territories, with intervals in Africa. His short stories have been published in Descant, Malahat Review, Carousel Magazine, Vancouver Review and others. In 2011 he was a Gold Medal finalist in the Western Magazine Awards.
Poetry
All Things Considered
Robert Gibbs
Robert Gibbs is in his eighties now, but his new collection betrays no sense of weariness or despair. Indeed, it’s a playful book, a book full of delightful surprises. Gibbs is agile with words, and his sense of the future is as keen as his recollection of the past. He’s done everything. He’s been a professor, a teacher, a novelist and a poet. And his work has always been close to the core of Maritime writing. “Robert Gibbs,” says Charles Epstein, “is an important figure in Atlantic literature.”
8.5 by 5.5 by 78 pages, cover by Linda Farquharson
$38.95 (cloth) ISBN 978 0 7780 1416 4
$18.95 (paper) ISBN 978 0 7780 1417 1
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Robert Gibbs was educated at Cambridge University and the University of New Brunswick, where he remained for many years a member of the department of English, as well as editor and poetry editor of The Fiddlehead. He has been associated with the Maritime Writer’s Workshop since its foundation, and the Director of the Creative Writing Graduate Programme at UNB, where he is now Professor Emeritus.
Copyright © Oberon Press, 2024 |
