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list price: $14.99
edition:eBook
also available: Paperback
category: Fiction
published: Sep 2023
ISBN:9781771668453
publisher: Book*hug Press

Anecdotes

by Kathryn Mockler

tagged: feminist, coming of age, short stories (single author), absurdist, contemporary women
Description

Shortlisted for the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award

Finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award

With dreamlike stories and dark humour, Anecdotes is a hybrid collection in four parts examining the pressing realities of sexual violence, abuse, and environmental collapse.

Absurdist flash fictions in “The Boy is Dead” depict characters such as a park that hates hippies, squirrels, and unhappy parents; a woman lamenting a stolen laptop the day the world ends; and birds slamming into glass buildings.

“We’re Not Here to Talk About Aliens” gathers autofictions that follow a young protagonist from childhood to early 20s, through the murky undercurrent of potential violence amidst sexual awakening, from first periods to flashers, sticker books to maxi pad art, acid trips to blackouts, and creepy professors to close calls.

“This Isn’t a Conversation” shares one-liners from overheard conversations, found texts, diary entries, and random thoughts: many are responses to the absurdity and pain of the current political and environmental climate.

In “My Dream House,” the past and the future are personified as various incarnations in relationships to one another (lovers, a parent and child, siblings, friends), all engaged in ongoing conflict.

These varied, immersive works bristle with truth in the face of unprecedented change. They are playful forms for serious times.

About the Author

Kathryn Mockler

KATHRYN MOCKLER is the author of five poetry books and the story collection, Anecdotes. She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis and runs the literary newsletter Send My Love to Anyone. She teaches screenwriting and fiction in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria. 

Awards
  • Short-listed, Betsy Warland Between Genres Book Award
  • Winner, City of Victoria Butler Book Prize
  • Short-listed, Fred Kerner Book Award
  • , Trillium Book Award
  • Short-listed, Danuta Gleed Literary Award
Editorial Reviews

“I was pleased to have Anecdotes in my hands and immerse myself in Mockler’s work…Against this darkness, the light shines ever brighter. Mockler bravely looks into the void and reports what she sees. Again, Beckett comes to mind” —Michael Bryson


"In powerful, distilled prose, Mockler seamlessly blends dark humour with pain. Add in absurdist flash fiction, climate anxiety, micro-conversations—this is a book with existential bite." —The Ampersand Review


"Mockler cleverly relays here that we’re so influenced by our past and our future that we remain stagnant... Her abruption of this silenced upbringing is radically transformative and is a call to action to all who will listen." —White Wall Review


"Mockler sucker-punches her readers with the courage to shine light and comment on serious issues. Her writing is uncommonly direct and she does not try to sugar coat the hopelessness that many of us experience when contemplating the issues she puts forth. Yet, she does give us the only thing that could possibly manage such harsh reality— outrageously good humour." —PRISM International


“Mockler blends traditional form with conversation deconstructions, one liners, and flash fiction. ‘Past and future’ is a reoccurring motif, and provides an organic pathway to explore the trajectory of the climate crisis in our lifetime, and the media’s all too common ‘how did we get here?’ refrain. Mockler’s look at social nostalgia is particularly satisfying, with wildly relatable stories that offer the possibility for rosy recollection, and then yank it away with a grin.” —49th Shelf


“Kathryn Mockler’s debut collection of short fiction is a deliciously dark and clever experiment that succeeds beautifully. Across four parts, the book riffs through flash fiction, connected stories, and micro conversations, ending with a past/future blend of hopelessness that will appeal to any cynic—or perhaps even realist.” —The British Columbia Review

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