Alexander MacLeod (1)

Canada has a healthy crop of literary journals and magazines (though the number seems far too few if you dream of getting your own stories published). In fact there are far too many to hope that any single individual might purchase, or library might stock, the full range. This, if no other reason were available, makes the annual Journey Prize anthology of best new writing from Canada an invaluable resource. Fortunately other reasons abound, not least of which is the excellent and varied writing on display.

The 2011 collection, selected by Alexander MacLeod, Alison Pick and Sarah Selecky, is of a high standard (not unlike the fine writing of the selectors). I did not find a single story here that I thought out of place amongst its peers. Some surprised, impressed, or startled me: Miranda Hill’s “Petitions to Saint Chronic”, Jessica Westhead’s “What I Would Say”, Jay Brown’s “The Girl From the War”, and Seyward Goodhand’s “The Fur Trader’s Daughter”.

I have no idea whether any of the above will go on to stellar literary careers. But I will be watching for them. I encourage you to pick up this anthology and make your own selection.… (meer)

Alexander MacLeod's first collection of stories is distinguished by a raw, muscular quality that lifts it above the ordinary. In these seven pieces the characters often face decisions that place body and soul at risk. Many are stretched to the limit of their endurance, testing their bodies against their will to succeed. Or they are staring squarely into a gaping hole where their life used to be, struggling through the aftermath of some misfortune. In defiance of profound physical revulsion, the young narrator of "The Loop" saves the life of a particularly loathsome individual. And in "Wonder about Parents," narrated with staccato immediacy, a young couple must cope with the challenge of a deathly ill infant. In these stories one emotionally charged event follows another and there is no respite for the reader. Only cccasionally does the writing become verbose, and as the narrative meanders the tautness is lost, as in "Adult Beginner I," where through grit and determination a young woman quells her fear of drowning to excel as a swimmer, only to risk everything in a single, reckless act. But overall the lapses are few. Light Lifting creates more tension and suspense than we have any right to expect of a debut collection of short fiction. Shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.… (meer)