Best Canadian Stories 2023

by Mark Anthony Jarman (Editor)

Selected by editor Mark Anthony Jarman, the 2023 edition of  Best Canadian Stories showcases the best Canadian fiction writing published in 2021. A collection that takes us into a firey near-future and a notorious feminist’s personal past, from a near-drowning to a fake breakdown, through mothers who fail us to crummy jobs, to thieves, to grief, to revenge with a bottle of tabasco sauce. With work by established practitioners alongside that of lesser-known writers, this year’s Best Canadian Stories shows how the short form can evoke the experience of a person on the brink. Including 2023 Metcalf-Rooke Award winner Caroline Adderson, and featuring, in tribute, two stories by the late Steven Heighton, this year’s collection draws together beloved Canadian practitioners of the form and thrilling new voices to continue not only a series, but a legacy in Canadian letters. Featuring works Caroline Adderson • David Bezmozgis • Jowita Bydlowska • Kate Cayley • Tamas Dobozy • Omar El Akkad • Christine Estima • Naomi Fontaine • Sara Freeman • Steven Heighton • Philip Huynh • David Huebert • Alexandra Mae Jones • Carmelinda Scian

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2022

About the author

Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, My White Planet, 19 Knives, New Orleans Is Sinking, Dancing Nightly in the Tavern, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. His novel, Salvage King Ya!, is on Amazon.ca’s list of 50 Essential Canadian Books and is the number one book on Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction.

He has won a Gold National Magazine Award in nonfiction, has twice won the Maclean-Hunter Endowment Award, won the Jack Hodgins Fiction Prize, and has been included in The Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories and short-listed for the O. Henry Prize and Best American Essays.

He has published in Walrus, Canadian Geographic, Hobart, The Barcelona Review, Vrij Nederland, and reviews for The Globe & Mail. He is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Yaddo fellow, has taught at the University of Victoria, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and now teaches at the University of New Brunswick, where he is fiction editor of The Fiddlehead literary journal.

A.S. BYATT on Mark Jarman:

At last. It is very irritating to discover a wonderful book published too long ago to be an official "book of the year". I was talking to a German friend, a few years ago, and we were trying to think of the greatest short story ever. We agreed enthusiastically that it was Henry James's "The Beast in the Jungle". Martin then said reflectively, "Unless it is 'Burn Man on a Texas Porch'." I had never heard of that, nor of its author, Mark Anthony Jarman, a Canadian. (Canadians specialise in great short stories - Munro, Atwood.) Jarman's collection is called 19 Knives, and it is brilliant. The writing is extraordinary, the stories are gripping, it is something new. And now I can say so.

—The Guardian, November 24, 2007

Reviews

[Ben Oldham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am afraid that this collection appears to me to shed a dull light on Canadian literature. Of the fifteen stories, far too many left me saying "What?" at the end. Some of them I could not follow the plot or understand what the author was trying to say at all. I mean, like sinfully so.

On the surface these stories have intrigue, in that they are often sensational topics that draw you in, but they end there: no depth, no theme, the quality of writing is sloppy and relies on curse words and pop culture references. Maybe I expect short stories to be more literary. Is that so much to ask, though?

The most refined and striking stories to me were:

- Neka, by Naomi Fontaine. The narrator grapples with her mother's decision to move them out of their indigenous community to Quebec City when she was a child. In context of the rest of the collection, this story is on the shorter side, but it has a lot more depth.
- Oddsmaking, by Omar el Akkad. Takes place in fire country, at a betting house where people come to gamble on which town will burn next. The pace of this story is great.

[Brit McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read enough short stories.

[Heidi Greco · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something for everyone here.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was plain and not memorable. Possibly even worse than the year before. There were about two short stories that I remember and I just finished reading. Most of the stories had next to zero charm.

[S. Kallahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were mediocre at best, but there were some decent ones in here.