14 great Canadian collections to read to celebrate Short Story Month

Did you know that May is Short Story Month? Celebrate by checking out one of these great Canadian collections.

Bad Endings by Carleigh Baker

Carleigh Baker explores failing relationships, challenging family dynamics and mental health in her debut short story collection,Bad Endings,which wasa finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and won the 2017 Vancouver Book Award.

• Why Carleigh Baker was lost until she wrote a short story collection

The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis

The Dark and Other Love Storiesisa collection oftales that explore the depths and fringes of human attachment and explores what it means to love and be loved. This short story collection,which was on the longlist for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize, is smart, strange and utterly unique.

• Deborah Willis on dj vu and unconventional thinking

The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova

Camilla Grudova's debut collection,The Doll's Alphabet, contains 13 surreal and unsettling stories thatwill make you uncomfortable, make you thinkand will leave you wanting more. The confident collection explores many feminist themes and echoes one of Canada's most established and beloved writers Margaret Atwood.

• Camilla Grudova writes for 'those moments of magical ecstasy'

Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont

Dawn Dumont'sGlass Beadsis a collection of short stories aboutfour friends trying to live their lives off reserve while they wrestle with everything from identity,racism andcultural disinheritanceto addiction,friendships and growing up.

• Why Dawn Dumont wrote about the ups and downs of the modern Indigenous experience

A Mariner's Guide To Self Sabotage by Bill Gaston

BillGastonhaspublished more than a dozen books, and his previous two short story collections GargoylesandJuliet Was a Surprise were finalists for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. A Mariner's Guide To Self Sabotage is a short story collection bound by a cast of characters defined by the secrets they keep, including a vegan working at a fish farm, a man who is exchanging his car for a goat and someone planning to sink the very boat they are repairing.

• Bill Gaston on how an ordinary writing routine can produce extraordinary results

Plaza Requiem by Martha Btiz

Martha Btiz moved from Mexico to Toronto in 2003. She has continued to write and publish in Spanish since moving to Canada. Plaza Requiem is her first book of short stories written in English, and it is filled with strong women who must make difficult choices and learn to live with the aftermath of things both done to them and they've done themselves.

• Martha Btiz knows what it takes to find your voice in a new country

Peninsula Sinking by David Huebert

David Huebert won theCBC Short Story Prizein 2016and published his debut collection of stories,Peninsula Sinking,the following year.Peninsula Sinkingconsiders our relationship with the natural world and the changing environment. The story that won the CBC Short Story Prize, Enigma, is the lead story in this moving collection.

• How David Huebert turned winning a CBC Literary Prize into a stunning short story collection

That Time I Loved Youby Carrianne Leung

CarrianneLeungdraws much of her inspiration from her childhood in Toronto's east end for her latest work,That Time I Loved You. The collectionofinterconnected short stories is set in1970sScarborough and eachpeelsback the shiny veneer of civility and delves in the underlyingtensions and issues of the families in the community.

• How Carrianne Leung drew on her Scarborough roots to tackle sensitive subjects

That Tiny Life by Erin Frances Fisher

Erin Frances Fisher's debut,ThatTiny Life,transports us to vastly different landscapes and times,from resource extraction in deep space to instrument building inpre-revolutionary France. The limitless collection of short storiesexplores our need for connection and humanity'scycle of creation and destruction.

• 'Never be embarrassed for loving a book:' Words of wisdom from short story writer Erin Frances Fisher

This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne BetasamosakeSimpson

Drawing from herNishnaabegstorytelling roots, LeanneBetasamosakeSimpson has created a poignant collection of songs and stories inThis Accident of Being Lostthat explores Indigenous identitiesand experiences.This Accident of Being Lost, a riveting and moving work,wasa finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

• How turning to her Nishnaabeg roots helped Leanne Betasamosake Simpson overcome a creative challenge

Things Are Good Now by Djamila Ibrahim

DjamilaIbrahimis an Ethiopian-born writer who moved to Canada in 1990. Her debut work of short fiction,Things Are Good Now,reflects on the immigrant experience and the compromises those arriving ina new country often make to belong. The collectionmarks her as a strong voice to follow in the near future.

• How Djamila Ibrahim's family and friends inspire her fiction

Things Not to Do by Jessica Westhead

JessicaWestheadisthe author of the novelPulpy & Midgeand the short story collectionAnd Also Sharks. Herlatestis a short story collection calledThings Not to Do.In her own uniquelyhumourousand empathetic way,Westheadtells honest, human stories thatexplore the dark side of ordinary people.

• Jessica Westhead on why her best writing comes out of fear

Tumbleweed by Josip Novakovich

Tumbleweed, which waslonglistedfor theScotiabankGiller Prize in 2017,isa collection of short stories about emigration andfamily ties.Novakovich, who was a finalist for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize, was raised in the former Yugoslavia and his experience as an immigrant to Canada deeply informs thisevocative collection.

• Josip Novakovich on the writing skill he'd like to improve

Zolitude by Paige Cooper

Paige Cooper's debut collection features 14 inventive, vivid stories that is equally playful as it is emotional. With stories set in places ranging from Latvia to small-town America, and telling stories about everything from monstrous creatures to Russian Spies, Zolitudeintroduces readers to a confident new Canadian writer.