Short story month: collections that delight, best enjoyed in the sun

Not only is May short story month, but it’s also the welcome beginning of warmer weather. Is it a coincidence that the season of walks along the beach, leisurely bike rides, and spontaneous swims align with a month-long celebration of bite-sized stories?

The avid reader knows that sometimes, all you need is a whirlwind of a tale, something that carries you away like a gust of wind; emotional impact is not measured by length but rather by intensity. Short stories are the perfect way to punctuate a warm spring day; they are a loyal companion to afternoons spent in the park, are the ideal length for a commute, and, lucky for us, there are some great new releases to pore over.

The characters in Moccasin Square Gardens (Douglas & McIntyre) by Richard Van Camp are haunted by the Wheetago, legendary monsters that consume humans. The mythical horrors have returned to Denendeh, where the people north of the 60th parallel live, drawn there by human greed and global warming. Pulled from the oral history of the people of Tli?cho? Dene and other communities, Van Camp’s stories are some of his most humourous to date. Ranging from themes of familial obligation to extraterrestrial connections, these stories weave a tapestry of a diverse group of people.

Dead Flowers (Nightwood Editions) by Alex Laidlaw chronicles characters who have become estranged from their own lives in various, messy ways. One is a young student trying to find her space in the world, and another is a father and cook at a Montreal cafe; a writer stays up late into the night, obsessively writing inappropriate letters to a public official. These stories are about the everyday tragedies of life, as well as the small triumphs, the isolation, and the ways in which we grapple with them.

The Great Happiness: Stories and Comics (Talonbooks) by M.A.C. Farrant is a collection of 70 mini-fictions, a veritable grab-bag of stories centered on happiness. A welcome antidote to the bleak news circuit, these snippets are equal parts poetry and prose; they are experimental musings on happiness in its many manifestations. From a woman who saves a grocery store lobster by mailing it to the Maritimes to ghost stories featuring a recently deceased novelist, Farrant’s imaginative world of fictions are small mementos to hold onto.

The debut collection of short stories from Téa Mutonji, titled Shut Up You’re Pretty (Arsenal Pulp Press), aptly suggests the anxieties, fears, and dramas surrounding identity and adolescence. These themes play out in Mutonji’s stories, the subjects of which range from a teenage girl discovering the social currency of her sexuality, intergenerational relationships between women, and the pain that comes from longing and choosing.

Intrigued? Revisit our interview with Mutonji about her process, womanhood, and the short story form.

In Tom Conley’s Collapsible (New Star Books), multiple worlds – and prose styles – collapse in on each other. Thirty fictions, from the micro to the inexplicable, are strung together like beads; different possible universes, contradictions, and observances of life render Conley’s work both expansive and finely tuned. Delve deeper into Conley’s world with this Q&A with the author.