Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library and TELUS.
Much like sunny days in Vancouver, short stories never go out of fashion. Come join us for a thrilling night of buzzworthy tales from authors dominating the genre at our next Incite!
Sharing themes of restlessness and fragmented lives, this trio of critically-acclaimed short story collections are beguiling explorations of unexpected bonds and people adrift. Rawi Hage (Stray Dogs, Knopf Canada), Angélique Lalonde (Glorious Frazzled Beings, Groundwood Books), and Christopher Evans (Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth, Groundwood Books) masterfully wield humour and complexity in their “tiny worlds.”
Join us for an incredible conversation with these three powerhouse authors, moderated by Festival friend and Journey Prize-shortlisted author, Anna Ling Kaye.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
Called a “superb collection” by Maclean’s, Stray Dogs is a captivating and cosmopolitan collection of stories from the award-winning author of Beirut Hellfire Society and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winning novel, De Niro’s Game. As his publisher notes, the stories are “wise, humane, relevant and caustically funny, revealing the singular vision of Hage at his best.”
One of the most discussed books of 2021, Lalonde’s Glorious Frazzled Beings was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was named a CBC Best Book of the Year. “A haunting dream of a book” according to David Chariandy, this is a collection that sings a love song to the homes we make, keep, and break.
The characters in Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth are, as his publisher notes, “people with strays—those who fall for the allure of nostalgia, grapple with male fragility, deny family trauma, and acquiesce to authority.” John Elizabeth Stintzi lauds the collection as “fracturing the mundane to reveal a bedrock of absurdity.”
Incite events are free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required. We encourage you to pick up these collections at your favourite independent bookseller.
This is an online, live event.
Participants and Speakers
Rawi Hage
RAWI HAGE was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war during the 1970s and 1980s. He immigrated to Canada in 1992 and now lives in Montreal. His first novel, De Niro’s Game, won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and has either won or been shortlisted for seven other major awards and prizes, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. Cockroach was the winner of the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. It was also shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award and the Giller Prize. His third novel, Carnival, was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Award and won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. His work has been translated into 30 languages.
Angélique Lalonde
ANGÉLIQUE LALONDE was the recipient of the 2019 Journey Prize, has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, and was awarded an Emerging Writer’s residency at the Banff Centre. Her work has been published in numerous journals and magazines. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Victoria. She dwells on Gitxsan Territory in Northern British Columbia with her partner, two small children, and many non-human beings.
Christopher Evans
CHRISTOPHER EVANS is a writer, editor, and teacher whose work has appeared in EVENT, the Literary Review, and Best Canadian Poetry and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He lives in Vancouver, B.C., with his partner and daughter. Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth is his debut collection.
Anna Ling Kaye
ANNA LING KAYE is a writer, editor, and columnist on CBC Radio. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the PEN Canada New Voices Prize and the Journey Prize, and received the 2021 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award.