Canadian Short Fiction Anthology

This stunning collection of 60 stories--over a century's worth of the best Canadian literature by an extraordinary array of our finest writers--has been selected and is introduced by award-winning writer Jane Urquhart. Urquhart's selection includes stories by major literary figures such as Mavis Gallant, Carol Shields, Alistair MacLeod, and Margaret Atwood, and wonderful stories by younger writers, including Dennis Bock, Joseph Boyden, and Madeleine Thien. This collection is uniquely organized into five parts: the immigrant experience, urban life, family drama, fantasy and metaphor, and celebrating the past.

This selection of 45 stories represents diverse narrative styles and a broad spectrum of human experience. Stories are organized chronologically, annotated, and prefaced by engaging short introductions. The updated fourth edition offers more microfiction, graphic literature, and speculative fiction; authors new to this edition include George Saunders, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Kristen Roupenian, Lydia Davis, and Jillian Tamaki.

Featuring a combination of classic and contemporary selections from Canadian, Aboriginal, and international authors, this collection of over 70 short stories introduces students to a wide range of engaging voices from across the genre.

A survey of Canada's leading writers features forty-seven stories, with new pieces by writers in the original Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories. Included are short stories by W. P. Kinsella, Morley Callaghan, Timothy Findlay, Matt Cohen, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

This selection concentrates on writers whose work belongs to the 1950s and 1960s.

“The right story, at the right time, if you happen to be open to it ... can perhaps move you so far outside of yourself that you will not consider going back.” “Like meeting a stranger, much of the pleasure of a story is its unknown power,” writes Best Canadian Stories 2020 guest editor Paige Cooper. “The right story, at the right time, if you happen to be open to it ... can perhaps move you so far outside of yourself that you will not consider going back.” From Festival du Voyageur to the shores of Lake Erie, Tbilisi to Toronto, the Amisk River to a hotel-turned-hospital in the midst of a mysterious pandemic, this wide-ranging anthology brings together the real and the speculative, small towns and big cities, grief and humour, introducing readers to stories that startle us into new understanding—of ourselves and each other, the worlds we inhabit and the ones they help us to imagine. Featuring work by: Maxime Raymond Bock • Lynn Coady • Kristyn Dunnion • Omar El Akkad • Camilla Grudova • Conor Kerr • Alex Leslie • Thea Lim • Madeleine Maillet • Cassidy McFadzean • Michael Melgaard • Jeff Noh • Casey Plett • Eden Robinson • Naben Ruthnum • Pablo Strauss • Souvankham Thammavongsa