fiction

By Greg Brown Myler Wilkinson has won the 23rd annual Short Fiction Prize for his story "The Blood of Slaves." Myler Wilkinson has published award-winning short stories set in British Columbia in journals such as Prism International and Pierian Spring. He has spent extended periods in Russia and has written three books, including Hemingway and Turgenev: The Nature of Literary Influence. He lives in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. His winning story is written from the point of view of Anton Chekhov and is dedicated to the memory of Alexander Vaschenko, friend of the heart, mentor.

By Sarah Bernstein

At my Jewish high school in Montreal, Mordecai Richler, of course, was a bit of a hero. Whether or not he liked it, and even though he relentlessly lampooned the Jewish community, he was still one of ours. February at our school was public speaking month. So, every February, the teachers compiled and distributed a list of quotations to all of us groaning, gawky teenagers — possible speech topics from which we were to choose. . . .

By Christina Cooke

Commendations on the novel’s thematic triumphs need not be contrived by this humble author as institutions such as The New Yorker, Guardian and Financial Times have safely lionized this text as one of the most celebrated of the past two decades. But the most striking yet undervalued aspect of White Teeth, from my reading, is Smith’s awareness of the constrictions placed upon writing by those reading it — of the insistent and insufferable question demanded ad naseum, “but what does this mean?" . . .

By Holly Luhning

The practice of incorporating historical or “real-life” events in a fictional work is common. But the term “documentary fiction” isn’t one I’ve often heard applied to a novel.