FPQ 5

by Jessica Westhead, Michael Bryson, Laure Baudot

In Michael Bryson's 'Survival', a couple sit in a lakeside Toronto condo, trapped by a crazed, mysterious sniper. 'The Lesson' presents a self-absorbed wedding DJ as the newest addition to Jessica Westhead’s trademark cast of offbeat protagonists. In Laure Baudot's 'In the Afternoon', a babysitter's envy — and its fallout — come to the fore when a former client is accused of a crime, and she must decide whether to help exonerate him. In 'Mui'n' by Nancy Branch, a Mi’gmaw guide charged to kill a bear finds his personal values coming into sharp conflict with his commitment to the task.

59 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2012

About the author

JESSICA WESTHEAD is a Toronto writer and editor, and one of the short-story-loving masterminds behind YOSS (Year of the Short Story). Her fiction has appeared in major literary journals in Canada and the United States, including Geist, The New Quarterly, and Indiana Review. Her novel Pulpy & Midge was published in 2007 by Coach House Books. Her short story collection And Also Sharks, published by Cormorant Books in 2011, was on the Globe and Mail’s Globe 100 list of the best books of 2011 and was a finalist for the 2012 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She was shortlisted for the 2009 CBC Literary Awards, and one of her stories was selected for the 2011 Journey Prize anthology.