Quill and Quire

Fiction: Short

The Children’s War

By C.P. Boyko

Darkly majestic but notably grim, Paul Carlucci’s third story collection luxuriates in misery. While Carlucci immerses readers in swampiness, the mammoth stories in C.P. Boyko’s challenging third collection draw attention to writerly technique. Though Carlucci’s ... Read More »

August 9, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Crow Jazz

By Linda Rogers

In the acknowledgements to her first short-story collection, acclaimed B.C. poet, essayist, and novelist Linda Rogers amusingly notes, “Accustomed to sips and gulps, poems and novels, the challenge of short fiction was like asking a ... Read More »

June 11, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

When We Were Birds

By Maria Mutch

The stories in Maria Mutch’s first collection explore, with varying degrees of success, intersections between the contemporary world and the dreamlike – sometimes nightmarish – tableaux of historical folk tales. A Canadian writer now based ... Read More »

April 23, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

That Tiny Life

By Erin Frances Fisher

Victoria-based author Erin Frances Fisher is a writer’s writer. With imagery that would make a poet jealous, characters rich enough to sustain entire novels, and dialogue that communicates a lot in few words, Fisher constructs ... Read More »

April 23, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Tiger, Tiger

By Johanna Skibsrud

A Pair of story collections from Djamila Ibrahim and Johanna Skibsrud shares one aspect in common: both are tightly organized around a central theme. Ibrahim’s debut collection focuses on the immigrant experience, as well as ... Read More »

March 15, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Short