Literary Press Group

Fiction – Short StoriesNEWCanaryNancy Jo Cullen • Biblioasis“A taken-for-granted sexual transiency is the most strikingly contemporary feature of these stories …The quietly radical assumption implicit in the book is that sex isn’t a matter of fixed identity but ofopportunistic action.” —Globe & Mail“There’s not a weak story in this bunch. Cullen is a writer to watch.” —Quill & QuireWhat has to die before you force yourself to change? That’s the question facing Nancy Jo Cullen’soff-colour, working-class, and slightly queer characters: from Catholic merchandise salesmen to hitchhikingyoung lesbians, the protagonists of Canary encounter the killer decisions that invisibly shapeour lives.ISBN-13: 9781927428146paperback / 128 pp5 x 7.5 / $18.95May 2013Nancy Jo Cullen is the fourth recipient of the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an Emerging GayWriter. She is the author of three collections of poetry. Her stories have been published in The Puritan,filling Station, and Grain. This is her first book.Key words: Canadian short stories, Feminism, Gender constructs, Queer/LGBTI identities,Women’s literary traditions, Literary studiesBarbara Klein-Muskrat, Then and NowSharon Abron Drache • Inanna PublicationsThe interrelated stories of this pseudo-memoir introduce readers to Barbara Klein-Muskrat, a successfulauthor of fiction and freelance book reviewer. Spanning some thirty years in her personal and professionallife, Barbara irreverently acquaints readers with her challenges related to her schizophrenic literary career,divided between writing fiction and reviewing it. The result is an outrageous satirical romp that calls tomind Philip Roth and Dorothy Parker.Sharon Abron Drache has published three other books of adult fiction: The Mikveh Man (1984), RitualSlaughter (1989), and The Golden Ghetto (1993). She lives and writes in Toronto.Key words: Canadian short stories, Jewish studies, Satire, Women’s literary traditionsISBN-13: 9781926708850paperback / 192 pp5.5 x 8.25 / $22.95November 2012CosmoSpencer Gordon • Coach House BooksAn admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a 3000-word sentence in defence of his passion. Actor MatthewMcConaughey descends into a surreal desert of the soul. An aging porn star dons a dinosaur costume tofilm the sex scene of his life.Though shifting wildly in tone, structure, and perspective from one page to the next, each of thesemercurial stories is drenched in pop culture, the distancing effects of modern communication and themalaise of solitary existence. At their core, these stories are a portrait of ordinary people (as well ascelebrities—they’re just like us!) striving, thinking, and suffering alone.ISBN-13: 9781552452677paperback / 218 pp5.5 x 8 / $18.95October 2012Spencer Gordon holds an MA from the University of Toronto. He is the co-editor of the online literaryjournal The Puritan and the the micro-press Ferno House. He blogs at dangerousliterature.blogspot.comand teaches writing at Humber College.Key words: Canadian short stories, Narrative & biography, Humour, Media studies, Youth culture,Pop culture, Celebrity culture20 Literary Press Group / Congress 2013