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Best Canadian Stories 2024
Selected by editor Lisa Moore, the 2024 edition of Best Canadian Stories showcases the best Canadian fiction writing published in 2022. Madhur Anand • Sharon Bala • Gary Barwin • Billy-Ray Belcourt • Xaiver Michael Campbell • Corinna Chong • Beth Downey • Allison Graves • Joel Thomas Hynes • Elise Levine • Sourayan Mookerjea • Lue Palmer • Michelle Porter • Sara Power • Ryan Turner • Ian Williams
- GenresShort Stories
288 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2023
6 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Moore
75 books291 followersLisa Moore has written two collections of stories, Degrees of Nakedness and Open, as well as a novel, Alligator.
Open and Alligator were both nominated for the Giller Prize. Alligator won the Commonwealth Prize for the Canadian Caribbean Region and the ReLit Award, and Open won the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Prize for Short Fiction.
Lisa has also written for television, radio, magazines (EnRoute, The Walrus and Chatelaine) and newspapers (The Globe and Mail and The National Post).
Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She also studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she became a member of The Burning Rock Collective, a group of St. John's writers.
Open and Alligator were both nominated for the Giller Prize. Alligator won the Commonwealth Prize for the Canadian Caribbean Region and the ReLit Award, and Open won the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Prize for Short Fiction.
Lisa has also written for television, radio, magazines (EnRoute, The Walrus and Chatelaine) and newspapers (The Globe and Mail and The National Post).
Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She also studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she became a member of The Burning Rock Collective, a group of St. John's writers.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 9, 2024
The Best of The Rock*?
A review of the Biblioasis paperback (November 14, 2023).
[3.4 Average, Bumped up to 4 Overall]
Maybe it is just me, but there was a whiff of nepotism in this selection of Canadian short stories by its editor Newfoundland novelist Lisa Moore. Although 54 literary journals and sources were consulted (as listed in the Appendix), 9 of the 16 stories were previously unpublished and were presumably solicited by the editor. Also of the 16, 7 of them were from writers either born in Newfoundland & Labrador or currently living there. But heck, if you are given the opportunity to make a personal selection why not go all out with your bespoke choices?
Overall the variety was quite high. Some stories were too obscure or experimental for me, but even those had distinctive individual writing styles. The longer observational or plot based stories were my favourites, as well as the editor's introduction which I thought deserved its own rating.
The following provide individual story ratings and summaries. Not spoiler blocked.
0. Introduction ***** by Lisa Moore. An entertaining and enthusiastic introduction by the editor and novelist to kick things off.
1. Insects Eat Birds *** by Madhur Anand. Snapshot anecdotes from the life of a Ornithology Museum Specialist. "When she explains her job, Ornithology Museum Specialist, to those outside the museum world, she says it is like being a librarian, but for birds, and then always has to remember to add that vital technicality, dead birds."
2. Interloper ***** by Sharon Bala. Historical fiction set in 1908 with Virginia Woolf visiting with her sister Vanessa and her husband Clive Bell while they are raising their infant son Julian.
3. Golemson *** by Gary Barwin. Surreal fantasy about a man who builds a golem and is then cuckolded by it. The building instructions sound quite accurate, including the use of a piece of paper with אמת (emét, 'truth') written on it.
4. One Woman's Memories *** by Billy-Ray Belcourt. A widow woman on a northern Alberta reserve has memories of her father and her late husband and wants to share them with her grown son who now lives far away and works at the University of Edmonton.
5. Pitfalls of Unsolicited Shoulding ** by Xaiver Michael Campbell. Repetitive story of cruising in a gym and looking for mr. right, and being ghosted afterwards. The "should" of the title referring to unsolicited gym advice e.g. "you should do this..." The character turns to their massage therapist for succor between the heartbreaks. Basically romance fiction, not my thing.
6. Love Cream Heat **** by Corinna Chong. A family reunites for a father's funeral. The son and daughter are concerned that the mother's skin appears to be turning blue. The daughter decides to look up an old lover from her youth, while the brother frets about becoming a father himself. Overall very entertaining story about why you can't always go back, but with humour & twists.
7. The Bee Garden **** by Beth Downey (not yet listed on GR). Starts off very caring with a husband building a garden to comfort his wife after a their loss (which is not explicitly stated, but the reader can read between the lines). But takes a darker turn and then has a real gut punch finale.
8. Ceiling Like the Sky *** by Allison Graves. A group of people are trapped in their St. John’s Newfoundland house during the so-called Snowmageddon in January 2020. Various antics ensue. This story is also collected in the author’s first book Soft Serve (2023).
9. Nothing But a Legacy *** by Joel Thomas Hynes. Father calls his wastrel sons "nothing but a legacy." A family of n'er do wells watch winter approach. Slight turn off in the trapping of a cat in a box trap, although no harm comes to it.
10. Cooler *** by Elise Levine. Some of this is very “inside baseball” about gambling, but the sense of it seems like the main character is a casino employee sent in to winning tables to cool down the action, because they themselves are such a depressing and poor player. Lots of stuff about wardrobe choices which emphasize the role. What the heck is a “lit tip” when given to a dealer?
11. Long Haul ** by Sourayan Mookerjea. I didn’t really understand what is going on here most of the time. It seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic future with 2 firemen inspecting a burnt out house at the beginning then called in with all hands to deal with some sort of Chernobyl-like disaster in Fort Jasper, Alberta?
12. Wata Tika Dan Blood ** by Lue Palmer (not listed on GR). Written with occasional
Jamaican patois, so perhaps hard to understand. For example the title means “Water Thicker Than Blood”, so a reverse of the standard saying. Three women (the 3 Fates, the 3 witches?) are pulling "soul cloths" out of the water and telling futures / fortunes.
13. Luck is a Lady ***** by Michelle Porter. A family is down on their luck with a disabled husband out of work and the wife delivering food parcels to other needy families from which she occasionally snags a few items for herself. But then a chance discovery may be their salvation. Story goes down a very noirish path but I enjoyed it. Written by the author of A Grandmother Begins the Story.
14. The Circular Motion of a Professional Spit-Shiner *** by Sara Power. Female cadet at Canada's Royal Military College. Stories of hazing & assault but also bonding. Joyce copes through bulimia but also through joining an amateur mime group.
15. Ghosts ***** by Ryan Turner. A divorced man meets an old acquaintance (the sister of his best friend growing up) at the airport while headed out to Vancouver to visit his widowed mother and her new live in partner. Mark fantasizes about a possible future life with Jana, and then she messages him about meeting up again on his way back east. Probably the longest story in this collection and the better for it.
16. Bro *** by Ian Williams. Somewhat silly story about a white man going out of his way to try to make a black friend in a town where there are few if any black people. Cringey story parodying white liberalism and white saviour complex. By the author of the Giller Prize winning Reproduction (2019).
Other Reviews
There are not many reviews on GR, so to read further you can follow-up via these extended write-ups:
Canadian Stories Offer Vivid Variety by Dave Williamson, Winnipeg Free Press, December 9, 2023.
Best Canadian Stories 2024 Selected by Lisa Moore by Michael Greenstein, The Miramichi Reader, November 6, 2023 [Note: This latter review provides extended story details which could be considered spoilers].
Footnote
* The nickname for Canada's Newfoundland is The Rock, due to its granite rock formations and as a compliment to the resilience of its population.
A review of the Biblioasis paperback (November 14, 2023).
[3.4 Average, Bumped up to 4 Overall]
Maybe it is just me, but there was a whiff of nepotism in this selection of Canadian short stories by its editor Newfoundland novelist Lisa Moore. Although 54 literary journals and sources were consulted (as listed in the Appendix), 9 of the 16 stories were previously unpublished and were presumably solicited by the editor. Also of the 16, 7 of them were from writers either born in Newfoundland & Labrador or currently living there. But heck, if you are given the opportunity to make a personal selection why not go all out with your bespoke choices?
Overall the variety was quite high. Some stories were too obscure or experimental for me, but even those had distinctive individual writing styles. The longer observational or plot based stories were my favourites, as well as the editor's introduction which I thought deserved its own rating.
The following provide individual story ratings and summaries. Not spoiler blocked.
0. Introduction ***** by Lisa Moore. An entertaining and enthusiastic introduction by the editor and novelist to kick things off.
1. Insects Eat Birds *** by Madhur Anand. Snapshot anecdotes from the life of a Ornithology Museum Specialist. "When she explains her job, Ornithology Museum Specialist, to those outside the museum world, she says it is like being a librarian, but for birds, and then always has to remember to add that vital technicality, dead birds."
2. Interloper ***** by Sharon Bala. Historical fiction set in 1908 with Virginia Woolf visiting with her sister Vanessa and her husband Clive Bell while they are raising their infant son Julian.
3. Golemson *** by Gary Barwin. Surreal fantasy about a man who builds a golem and is then cuckolded by it. The building instructions sound quite accurate, including the use of a piece of paper with אמת (emét, 'truth') written on it.
4. One Woman's Memories *** by Billy-Ray Belcourt. A widow woman on a northern Alberta reserve has memories of her father and her late husband and wants to share them with her grown son who now lives far away and works at the University of Edmonton.
5. Pitfalls of Unsolicited Shoulding ** by Xaiver Michael Campbell. Repetitive story of cruising in a gym and looking for mr. right, and being ghosted afterwards. The "should" of the title referring to unsolicited gym advice e.g. "you should do this..." The character turns to their massage therapist for succor between the heartbreaks. Basically romance fiction, not my thing.
6. Love Cream Heat **** by Corinna Chong. A family reunites for a father's funeral. The son and daughter are concerned that the mother's skin appears to be turning blue. The daughter decides to look up an old lover from her youth, while the brother frets about becoming a father himself. Overall very entertaining story about why you can't always go back, but with humour & twists.
7. The Bee Garden **** by Beth Downey (not yet listed on GR). Starts off very caring with a husband building a garden to comfort his wife after a their loss (which is not explicitly stated, but the reader can read between the lines). But takes a darker turn and then has a real gut punch finale.
8. Ceiling Like the Sky *** by Allison Graves. A group of people are trapped in their St. John’s Newfoundland house during the so-called Snowmageddon in January 2020. Various antics ensue. This story is also collected in the author’s first book Soft Serve (2023).
9. Nothing But a Legacy *** by Joel Thomas Hynes. Father calls his wastrel sons "nothing but a legacy." A family of n'er do wells watch winter approach. Slight turn off in the trapping of a cat in a box trap, although no harm comes to it.
10. Cooler *** by Elise Levine. Some of this is very “inside baseball” about gambling, but the sense of it seems like the main character is a casino employee sent in to winning tables to cool down the action, because they themselves are such a depressing and poor player. Lots of stuff about wardrobe choices which emphasize the role. What the heck is a “lit tip” when given to a dealer?
11. Long Haul ** by Sourayan Mookerjea. I didn’t really understand what is going on here most of the time. It seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic future with 2 firemen inspecting a burnt out house at the beginning then called in with all hands to deal with some sort of Chernobyl-like disaster in Fort Jasper, Alberta?
12. Wata Tika Dan Blood ** by Lue Palmer (not listed on GR). Written with occasional
Jamaican patois, so perhaps hard to understand. For example the title means “Water Thicker Than Blood”, so a reverse of the standard saying. Three women (the 3 Fates, the 3 witches?) are pulling "soul cloths" out of the water and telling futures / fortunes.
13. Luck is a Lady ***** by Michelle Porter. A family is down on their luck with a disabled husband out of work and the wife delivering food parcels to other needy families from which she occasionally snags a few items for herself. But then a chance discovery may be their salvation. Story goes down a very noirish path but I enjoyed it. Written by the author of A Grandmother Begins the Story.
14. The Circular Motion of a Professional Spit-Shiner *** by Sara Power. Female cadet at Canada's Royal Military College. Stories of hazing & assault but also bonding. Joyce copes through bulimia but also through joining an amateur mime group.
15. Ghosts ***** by Ryan Turner. A divorced man meets an old acquaintance (the sister of his best friend growing up) at the airport while headed out to Vancouver to visit his widowed mother and her new live in partner. Mark fantasizes about a possible future life with Jana, and then she messages him about meeting up again on his way back east. Probably the longest story in this collection and the better for it.
16. Bro *** by Ian Williams. Somewhat silly story about a white man going out of his way to try to make a black friend in a town where there are few if any black people. Cringey story parodying white liberalism and white saviour complex. By the author of the Giller Prize winning Reproduction (2019).
Other Reviews
There are not many reviews on GR, so to read further you can follow-up via these extended write-ups:
Canadian Stories Offer Vivid Variety by Dave Williamson, Winnipeg Free Press, December 9, 2023.
Best Canadian Stories 2024 Selected by Lisa Moore by Michael Greenstein, The Miramichi Reader, November 6, 2023 [Note: This latter review provides extended story details which could be considered spoilers].
Footnote
* The nickname for Canada's Newfoundland is The Rock, due to its granite rock formations and as a compliment to the resilience of its population.
September 18, 2024
Golemson by Gary Barwin 5/5
Wata Tika Dan Blood by Lue Palmer 5/5
Wata Tika Dan Blood by Lue Palmer 5/5
April 30, 2024
A little underwhelming. The story "Bro" is funy and cutting, though.
October 16, 2025
The past is an empty house we can wander through but we don't need to drag furniture inside. p57
from the story by Billy-Ray Belcourt "One Woman's Memories"
Considering how much I love the stories of Lisa Moore, I was expecting, perhaps unfairly, something more from this collection. In fact, for me the most interesting writing is in the introduction, in which LM tries to explain what mattered to her as she made her choices on what to include. This could have been expanded on. I also would have enjoyed more of the discussion on just what is a short story and the insight of Alexander McLeod is the main takeaway for me.
The compression of a short story is a kind of alchemy, changes the very nature of the elements with which you begin. p9 quoted from introduction.
I also loved LM's conclusion "What makes a character magnetic is the desire for another character" p11 Alas! Rather than an alchemy of desire, many of the stories feature the loss of desire and the fear of it; the futility and the trap and the awkward shapes it takes.
She hadn't forgotten. Not really. She'd simply put it all away, tucked it inside where it couldn't be seen. from Love Cream Heat by Corinna Chong p104
Not that the stories were all claustrophobic, cringeworthy or depressing. But even the one written by the only author here that I know and admire, quoted at the beginning of this review, left a sad impression.
People die, but even in death they continue aging in crooked photographs along a wall in someones house. p59 from the story by Billy-Ray Belcourt
The story Cooler by Elise Levine was full of masochistic humour and a line from the almost heartbreaking story "Pitfalls of Unsolicited Shoulding" by Xavier Michael Campbell sums up the present moment well: I would feel more accomplished if I could afford to live. p71
I had mixed feelings about "The Circular Motions of a Professional Spit Shiner" by Sara Power but I do appreciate this quote:
she has to believe she is on a tightrope: she has to make herself forget that the tightrope is not there. p175
3/5
3/7
November 25, 2024
I am not a fan of short stories or short story collections (okay maybe if they are all written by SK) and this one was the same. What drew me in to give it a try was the inclusion of two of my favourite Canadian authors--Gary Barwin and Joel Thomas Hynes from Hamilton and St. John's respectively.
November 18, 2024
just no
October 30, 2024
Overall underwhelming. I found the sexual themes in cohesive. There are stories that read like trauma dumping trashy texts. There were a few strong stories. I’m reviewing my favourite:
Nothing but a Legacy tells a bittersweet story of a young boy named John-John, whose innocent and observant perspective emphasizes tension in his complex family dynamics.
Set at night in their kitchen, the narrative opens with John-John and his father, who is drinking to pass the time while loosely engaging in their card game.
The story weaves together vivid flashbacks to interactions between John-John and his family. His older brothers, Lukey and Mark, are referred to as a “legacy,” as they are in a pattern of doing things they shouldn’t be doing. John-John remains naïve to their intentions and motivations. His sense of longing for the unknown that lies just within arm's reach is astutely articulated throughout the story.
“Lukey sent me in to get a cigarette from Mom’s package on the table. Then he let me hold the string attached to the stick.” The story is best told from John-John’s unique perspective because it allows readers to experience the intense highs and lows of each moment, which are often blurred in adulthood. The underlying themes have not yet registered with him, inviting us to empathize in the moment with his innocent viewpoint.
“Yesterday Lukey taught me how to trap a tomcat. One medium-sized cardboard box, one paint stick, a long piece of string, and a plate of tinned ham.” The narrative offers convincing scenes that explore the unspoken truce of a sibling relationship and John-John’s enduring innocence.
The dialogue is written in Hynes's own voice, informal and enriched with the dialect of Newfoundland English, evident in little snippets like “I looks…” and “I watches…” John-John’s voice is masterfully crafted to be both assertive and hopeful, fostering an intimate relationship between him and the reader. “The picture burned into my head, like when you looks at a light bulb and then tries to look at something else,” he says, after witnessing an event he wasn't meant to see. This moment encapsulates a profound sense of discovery and growth, capturing the essence of lost innocence.
The family is painted with simple but crisp imagery. “He tromps out to the back porch, opens the door, and stands there staring out at the track, chugging his beer. It’s pitch-black and the wind is up.”
As the title suggests, John-John will likely follow in the footsteps of his family, inheriting their complex legacies.
The final anecdote builds throughout the narrative but could benefit from additional connective phrases and context for smoother transitions between flashbacks and the present. It is unclear whether the key event that took place the prior week is being discussed in current time or in flashback.
Readers who have experienced older influencers that were both cool and problematic will continue to yearn for more time with John-John after the story's comedic and bittersweet end.
Nothing but a Legacy is a rich exploration of a child's perspective through familial complexities told by a boy who remains hopeful amid chaos. Hynes leaves readers reflecting on our own experiences with family legacies and the bittersweet nature of the influences tethered to the loss of childhood innocence.
Joel Thomas Hynes was born in Culvert, Newfoundland and Labrador. His latest novel, We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, won the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the BMO Winterset Award, the NLB Award for Fiction, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His debut novel, Down to the Dirt, was adapted into a film. He holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. Hynes is also the creator of the hit TV show Little Dog, a CBC comedy series.
Nothing but a Legacy tells a bittersweet story of a young boy named John-John, whose innocent and observant perspective emphasizes tension in his complex family dynamics.
Set at night in their kitchen, the narrative opens with John-John and his father, who is drinking to pass the time while loosely engaging in their card game.
The story weaves together vivid flashbacks to interactions between John-John and his family. His older brothers, Lukey and Mark, are referred to as a “legacy,” as they are in a pattern of doing things they shouldn’t be doing. John-John remains naïve to their intentions and motivations. His sense of longing for the unknown that lies just within arm's reach is astutely articulated throughout the story.
“Lukey sent me in to get a cigarette from Mom’s package on the table. Then he let me hold the string attached to the stick.” The story is best told from John-John’s unique perspective because it allows readers to experience the intense highs and lows of each moment, which are often blurred in adulthood. The underlying themes have not yet registered with him, inviting us to empathize in the moment with his innocent viewpoint.
“Yesterday Lukey taught me how to trap a tomcat. One medium-sized cardboard box, one paint stick, a long piece of string, and a plate of tinned ham.” The narrative offers convincing scenes that explore the unspoken truce of a sibling relationship and John-John’s enduring innocence.
The dialogue is written in Hynes's own voice, informal and enriched with the dialect of Newfoundland English, evident in little snippets like “I looks…” and “I watches…” John-John’s voice is masterfully crafted to be both assertive and hopeful, fostering an intimate relationship between him and the reader. “The picture burned into my head, like when you looks at a light bulb and then tries to look at something else,” he says, after witnessing an event he wasn't meant to see. This moment encapsulates a profound sense of discovery and growth, capturing the essence of lost innocence.
The family is painted with simple but crisp imagery. “He tromps out to the back porch, opens the door, and stands there staring out at the track, chugging his beer. It’s pitch-black and the wind is up.”
As the title suggests, John-John will likely follow in the footsteps of his family, inheriting their complex legacies.
The final anecdote builds throughout the narrative but could benefit from additional connective phrases and context for smoother transitions between flashbacks and the present. It is unclear whether the key event that took place the prior week is being discussed in current time or in flashback.
Readers who have experienced older influencers that were both cool and problematic will continue to yearn for more time with John-John after the story's comedic and bittersweet end.
Nothing but a Legacy is a rich exploration of a child's perspective through familial complexities told by a boy who remains hopeful amid chaos. Hynes leaves readers reflecting on our own experiences with family legacies and the bittersweet nature of the influences tethered to the loss of childhood innocence.
Joel Thomas Hynes was born in Culvert, Newfoundland and Labrador. His latest novel, We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, won the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the BMO Winterset Award, the NLB Award for Fiction, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His debut novel, Down to the Dirt, was adapted into a film. He holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. Hynes is also the creator of the hit TV show Little Dog, a CBC comedy series.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews