The Journey Prize Stories 31: The Best of Canada's New Writers

by Carleigh Baker (Compiler), Catherine Hernandez (Selections), Joshua Whitehead (Selections)

For more than thirty years, this celebrated anthology has introduced readers to the next generation of great Canadian writers. With settings ranging from a Saskatchewan wheat field marked by crop circles to a dystopian metropolis where people are under constant surveillance, the twelve stories in this collection represent the year's best short fiction by some of our most exciting emerging voices.

An aspiring artist looking for inspiration in the "aliveness of the desert" gets less--and more--than she bargained for when she signs up for a residency at a roadside motel. After years of toiling to pay off a debt that has devastated his family, a young Chinese fisherman makes a magical catch that will change the course of his life. As a populist candidate stands poised to triumph at a political convention, his campaign strategist and childhood best friend reflects on the dark legacy of their relationship. A brutal assault on a Toronto taxi driver leads his friend on a desperate search for answers. When troubling stories of women's encounters with aliens start to dominate the news cycle, a reporter reluctantly returns to her hometown to cover the phenomenon. A carpet collector reimagines his family's fractured history by weaving new tapestries to tell their stories. Unsure of whether his client is really dying, an end-of-life gift professional must assess the man's extravagant last wish. A Ktunaxa grandmother tells a parable of why you shouldn't speak to Kupi (owl) at night.

Genres: Anthologies

216 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[AJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get the idea that the editors were more interested in ensuring the representation of diverse voices than in the reader's experience. The large majority of these stories simply weren't interesting -- they had me skipping pages, sometimes looking for something juicy to start, other times simply looking for the start of the next story. The one that grabbed me the most was The Candidate, a challenging and quite topical read.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe a number of these short stories are actually meant more for an elitist audience than it is for consumption by the general public. These stories quite often don't have a beginning a middle and an end as you would expect in a fully complete story. They seem to be more geared towards a set of criteria that the prize committees might consider worthy. It's not the type of book that you expect the public in general to like as far as I'm concerned. It's more of a literary exercise than a series of enjoyable stories. This is all a shame since The Journey Prize is supposed to be a collection from up and coming artists in Canada. If this is the case then we don't have much to look forward to.