Best Canadian Stories 2020

Contributors’ Biographies

Maxime Raymond Bock was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1981. After pursuing studies in sports, music, and literature, he published four books of fiction, of which two, Atavismes (Atavisms, Dalkey Archive, 2015), and Des lames de pierre (Baloney, Coach House, 2016), were translated into English by Pablo Strauss. His latest collection of short fiction, Les noyades secondaires, was published with Cheval d’août éditeur (Montreal) in 2017.

Lynn Coady is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of six books of fiction, including Hellgoing, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and was an Amazon.ca and Globe and Mail Best Book. She is also the author of The Antagonist, winner of the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her books have been published in the United Kingdom, United States, Holland, France, and Germany. Coady lives in Toronto and writes for television.

Kristyn Dunnion has published six books, including Stoop City and Tarry This Night. Dunnion earned a BA from McGill University and an MA from the University of Guelph. She has worked as a housing advocate to combat homelessness in marginalized communities. A queer punk performance artist and heavy metal bassist, Dunnion was raised in Essex County and now resides in Toronto. www.kristyndunnion.com

Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. His debut novel, American War, has been translated into more than thirteen languages and was selected by the BBC as one of the 100 novels that changed our world.

Camilla Grudova lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she works at a cinema. Her first book The Doll’s Alphabet was published in 2017.

Conor Kerr is a Métis writer, descended from the Fort des Prairies and Lac Ste. Anne communities. He grew up in Buffalo Pound Lake, Saskatchewan, and currently lives in Edmonton, where he works as a part-time magpie interpreter, labrador retriever wrestler, harvester, and educator.

Alex Leslie has published two collections of short fiction, People Who Disappear (Freehand), shortlisted for a 2013 Lambda Award for debut fiction, and We All Need to Eat (Book*hug), shortlisted for a 2019 BC Book Prize for fiction and the Kobzar Prize. Alex has also published two collections of poetry, The things I heard about you (Nightwood), shortlisted for the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for innovative poetry, and Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug). Alex’s writing has been published in Granta, the Journey Prize anthology, and many journals throughout Canada. Alex is writing a novel.

Thea Lim is the author of An Ocean of Minutes, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her writing has been published by Granta, The Paris Review, Globe and Mail, and others. She grew up in Singapore and now lives with her family in Toronto, where she is a professor of creative writing.

Madeleine Maillet is a writer, translator, and French Canadian. Her stories have been published in PRISM international, THIS Magazine, No Tokens, Joyland, Matrix, and anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories 27 (McClelland & Stewart).

Cassidy McFadzean was born in Regina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently lives in Toronto. She is the author of two books of poetry: Hacker Packer (McClelland & Stewart 2015) and Drolleries (M&S 2019). Her story “Victory Day” was runner up in PRISM international’s Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction.

Michael Melgaard is the author of the short story collection Pallbearing (House of Anansi, 2020). His fiction has appeared in Joyland, The Puritan, and Bad Nudes. He lives in Toronto.

Jeff Noh, a writer based in Montreal, was born in Seoul and grew up in New Jersey, New York, and Southern Alberta. He is an inaugural UNESCO City of Literature writer in residence in Bucheon, South Korea, where he is completing work on a novel in progress.

Casey Plett is the author of the novel Little Fish and the story collection A Safe Girl to Love, and co-editor of the anthology Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, she has written for multiple publications including the New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Walrus, them., Plenitude, and others.

Eden Robinson’s latest novels are Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift. The final novel in the Trickster series, Return of the Trickster, is forthcoming spring 2021.

Naben Ruthnum is the author of Curry: Eating, Reading and Race, and, as Nathan Ripley, of the thrillers Find You In the Dark and Your Life is Mine. Ruthnum has won the Journey Prize and a National Magazine Award for his short stories.

Pablo Strauss has translated many works of fiction from Quebec, including Maxime Raymond Bock’s Atavisms (2015) and Baloney (2016). He grew up in Victoria, BC, and makes his home in Quebec City.

Souvankham Thammavongsa’s first story collection is How to Pronounce Knife (McClelland & Stewart, 2020). Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, Granta, The Paris Review, and other places.