The Journey Prize Stories 24 Read online

  WINNERS OF THE $10,000 JOURNEY PRIZE

  1989

  Holley Rubinsky for

  “Rapid Transits”

  1990

  Cynthia Flood for “My Father

  Took a Cake to France”

  1991

  Yann Martel for “The Facts

  Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios”

  1992

  Rozena Maart for “No Rosa,

  No District Six”

  1993

  Gayla Reid for

  “Sister Doyle’s Men”

  1994

  Melissa Hardy for

  “Long Man the River”

  1995

  Kathryn Woodward for “Of

  Marranos and Gilded Angels”

  1996

  Elyse Gasco for “Can You Wave

  Bye Bye, Baby?”

  1997 (shared)

  Gabriella Goliger for

  “Maladies of the Inner Ear”

  Anne Simpson for

  “Dreaming Snow”

  1998

  John Brooke for

  “The Finer Points of Apples”

  1999

  Alissa York for “The Back of the

  Bear’s Mouth”

  2000

  Timothy Taylor for

  “Doves of Townsend”

  2001

  Kevin Armstrong for

  “The Cane Field”

  2002

  Jocelyn Brown for

  “Miss Canada”

  2003

  Jessica Grant for

  “My Husband’s Jump”

  2004

  Devin Krukoff for

  “The Last Spark”

  2005

  Matt Shaw for “Matchbook for a

  Mother’s Hair”

  2006

  Heather Birrell for

  “BriannaSusannaAlana”

  2007

  Craig Boyko for

  “OZY”

  2008

  Saleema Nawaz for

  “My Three Girls”

  2009

  Yasuko Thanh for

  “Floating Like the Dead”

  2010

  Devon Code for

  “Uncle Oscar”

  2011

  Miranda Hill for

  “Petitions to Saint Chronic”

  Copyright © 2012 by McClelland & Stewart

  Emblem is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited

  Emblem and colophon are registered trademarks of McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.

  “Is Alive and Can Move” © Kris Bertin; “Why I Read Beowulf” © Shashi Bhat; “Ice Break” © Astrid Blodgett; “You Were Loved” © Trevor Corkum; “Ashes” © Nancy Jo Cullen; “To Have to Wait” © Kevin Hardcastle; “I’m Sorry and Thank You” © Andrew Hood; “Manning” © Andrew Hood; “The Many Faces of Montgomery Clift” © Grace O’Connell; “Barcelona” © Jasmina Odor; “Crisis on Earth-X” © Alex Pugsley; “Sea Drift” © Eliza Robertson; “My Daughter of the Dead Reeds” © Martin West. These stories are reprinted with permission of the authors.

  The lyrics quoted on this page are from the song “(I’ll be with you) In Apple Blossom Time.”

  A cataloguing record for this publication is available from Library and Archives Canada.

  We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

  Published simultaneously in the United States of America by McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012941714

  McClelland & Stewart,

  a division of Random House of Canada Limited

  One Toronto Street

  Suite 300

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  www.mcclelland.com

  eISBN: 978-0-7710-9587-0

  v3.1

  ABOUT THE JOURNEY PRIZE STORIES

  The $10,000 Journey Prize is awarded annually to an emerging writer of distinction. This award, now in its twenty-fourth year, and given for the twelfth time in association with the Writers’ Trust of Canada as the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his novel Journey, published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988. The Journey Prize itself is the most significant monetary award given in Canada to a developing writer for a short story or excerpt from a fiction work in progress. The winner of this year’s Journey Prize will be selected from among the thirteen stories in this book.

  The Journey Prize Stories has established itself as the most prestigious annual fiction anthology in the country, introducing readers to the finest new literary writers from coast to coast for more than two decades. It has become a who’s who of up-and-coming writers, and many of the authors who have appeared in the anthology’s pages have gone on to distinguish themselves with collections of short stories, novels, and literary awards. The anthology comprises a selection from submissions made by the editors of literary journals from across the country, who have chosen what, in their view, is the most exciting writing in English that they have published in the previous year. In recognition of the vital role journals play in fostering literary voices, McClelland & Stewart makes its own award of $2,000 to the journal that originally published and submitted the winning entry.

  This year the selection jury comprised three acclaimed writers:

  Michael Christie’s debut collection, The Beggar’s Garden, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won the City of Vancouver Book Award. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at UBC in 2008. A two-time Journey Prize contributor, he now lives in Thunder Bay, where he is at work on a novel. For more information, please visit www.MichaelChristie.net.

  Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer is the author of the novels Perfecting and The Nettle Spinner as well as the short fiction collection Way Up. Her short fiction has been published in The Walrus, Granta Magazine, and Storyville. She is the inaugural recipient of The Sidney Prize for Short Fiction. She is an award-winning creative writing instructor through the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and Associate Faculty with the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA. Please visit www.KathrynKuitenbrouwer.com.

  Kathleen Winter’s first novel, Annabel, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her debut collection of stories, boYs, won the Winterset Award and the Metcalfe-Rooke Award. She lives in Montreal.

  The jury read a total of eighty-two submissions without knowing the names of the authors or those of the journals in which the stories originally appeared. McClelland & Stewart would like to thank the jury for their efforts in se
lecting this year’s anthology and, ultimately, the winner of this year’s Journey Prize.

  McClelland & Stewart would also like to acknowledge the continuing enthusiastic support of writers, literary journal editors, and the public in the common celebration of new voices in Canadian fiction.

  For more information about The Journey Prize Stories, please visit www.mcclelland.com and www.facebook.com/TheJourneyPrize.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter

  SHASHI BHAT

  Why I Read Beowulf

  (from PRISM international)

  KEVIN HARDCASTLE

  To Have to Wait

  (from The Malahat Review)

  GRACE O’CONNELL

  The Many Faces of Montgomery Clift

  (from Taddle Creek)

  MARTIN WEST

  My Daughter of the Dead Reeds

  (from The Fiddlehead)

  JASMINA ODOR

  Barcelona

  (from The New Quarterly)

  ANDREW HOOD

  Manning

  (from PRISM international)

  ELIZA ROBERTSON

  Where have you fallen, have you fallen?

  (from Vancouver Review)

  ANDREW HOOD

  I’m Sorry and Thank You

  (from Joyland)

  NANCY JO CULLEN

  Ashes

  (from The Puritan)

  ALEX PUGSLEY

  Crisis on Earth-X

  (from The Dalhousie Review)

  ASTRID BLODGETT

  Ice Break

  (from The Antigonish Review)

  KRIS BERTIN

  Is Alive and Can Move

  (from PRISM international)

  TREVOR CORKUM

  You Were Loved

  (from The Malahat Review)

  About the Contributors

  The Journey Prize Questionnaire

  About the Contributing Journals

  Previous Contributing Authors

  INTRODUCTION

  Juries are tricky things, and though a blind jury has its advantages, it also comes with complications. Writing is an ethical as well as an aesthetic profession, and as readers and judges we fought at times against ourselves: would the stories in the anthology justly represent Canada and its multiplicity of voices? Should that even be a consideration? The jury for the Journey Prize is meant to come up with both a selection of the best stories and something like a cohesive anthology. Ultimately, though we kept a hope of achieving a balanced representation of voices in this country, our jury made decisions based on overall craft – we cared about stories realizing their full potential through their gorgeous attention to words, and their forceful drive toward their own meaning.

  We learned that unlike the proverbial customer, the reader is not always right, especially when charged with the near-impossible task of picking the best stories from a sea of almost uniformly impressive works by new and emerging Canadian writers. A few stories were overlooked on our first reading. But as we chose the long list there were spectacular reversals. Many stories that initially refused to yield their riches bloomed upon subsequent readings, and jurors cozied up to others they had declared insufferable. Other stories that wowed us at first lost their flavour after a second look. Throughout, we cajoled and convinced, we argued and wooed, we decamped and betrayed.

  We were three jurors with vastly differing perspectives and taste, and we saw first-hand the beauty of this – the joy of convincing and shifting one another’s views while feeling our own preferences evolve. In the end, we are all happy to have a collection that represents craft, brilliance, audacity, subtlety, and force. We couldn’t have done it without listening carefully to one another and being willing to question ourselves. More than anything, we were each able to pluck our heels out of the dirt and change our minds. And we believe that after surviving the messy inexactness of this process, the final anthology is stronger for it. But enough of us, the stories are the true reason you’re reading this anthology. So here’s how they moved us and why we chose them.

  In “Why I Read Beowulf,” Shashi Bhat’s exquisitely lucid tone keeps opening out into greater and more perilous surprises. We admired the matter-of-fact way Bhat introduced astonishing statements. Our hearts leapt in fear as we progressed through this wry study of the shifts between predator and prey.

  Kevin Hardcastle’s “To Have to Wait” uses condensed lines to ignite this story of two brothers on a road trip to bring their father home from a desperate place. We loved Hardcastle’s deadly dialogue, his natural precision, and his mastery of relationships. The structure and pacing impressed us, as did the piece’s emotional elegance.

  Grace O’Connell’s breathtaking story of the love between two friends repeatedly conveys the whole from a study of parts. Natural dialogue shows us a friendship that is strong yet ever so fragile. “The Many Faces of Montgomery Clift” manages to show how friends can achieve a kind of immortality despite social constraints that fertilize hypocrisy and lies, and the writing bursts with transparent colour and freshness.

  We lauded “Daughter of the Dead Reeds” for its elusive and enigmatic meaning. A strange admixture of dirty realism and fantasy, this story’s filthy secret only submerged us deeper within it. We never fully understood this story and we didn’t care. Martin West gave us that sinking feeling that belies all art, and we marvelled at it.

  Jasmina Odor’s “Barcelona” meted out its riches in a way that forced us to embrace the story and be slowly danced toward an accumulating articulation of meaning. We recognized a complex marriage of theme and form in this story, and were moved and impressed by it.

  We were delighted to learn we’d selected not one but two stories from Andrew Hood. The first, “Manning,” a foray into the absurd underbelly of a collectors’ convention, is a joltingly funny reminder that there is indeed such a thing as heartbreaking callousness, especially when it’s exhibited by a child, and especially when this child and his mother were left with only twenty-nine boxes of worthless sports cards as their inheritance. (Who would’ve thought such pathos could be wrung from a near-worthless Rance Davis baseball card?)

  We loved Eliza Robertson’s “Sea Drift” for its strange regressive narrative, how it worked backward toward sense and built a gossamer matrix of imagery to hold that sense. We enjoyed its light touch, and its insistence on deconstructing myth into the personal. The story sparkles.

  Andrew Hood’s second story in the anthology, “I’m Sorry and Thank You,” is a hilarious encounter between two disparate souls. Restrained and subversive, this piece uses clever shorthand and radical leaps that give it a feeling of liftoff. We loved Hood’s natural language, his deft implications, and his exacting use of carefully selected words to large effect.

  “Ashes” is a study in the use of telling details. We appreciated its snappy pacing – clipping along and never flagging – and its use of a framing device that works well with the subject matter. Nancy Jo Cullen uses concentrated phrases to say big things, and her respect for accuracy gives this story its sharpness.

  Alex Pugsley’s “Crisis on Earth-X” sets up countless impossible hoops and then proceeds to jump through them in ways we could not have foreseen. Its sentences and its story surprised and amused us. It even broke our hearts in the way an excellent story can, so that we were glad to have them broken.

  In her story “Ice Break,” Astrid Blodgett ties, hangs, and tightens a noose of narrative with a masterful touch. Every word in this story is essential, and you can almost hear the text cracking beneath you as you venture out upon it, inching further from the shores of its beginning. In this quiet prelude of tragedy, Blodgett has crafted a tale that lives in your mind long after you’ve broken through.

  Kris Bertin sets up the more traditional narrative of a recovering alcoholic who takes a job as a night janitor, before veer
ing things into a surreal devolution. In the world of “Is Alive and Can Move,” dashed middle-aged ambitions exist beside the unreasonable expectations of youth, monastic purity beside boozy excess, and careful celibacy beside sexual abandon. Besides, where else could you find this sort of linguistic gold: “I barely finished my cleaning that night because I was so fucked up over the lizard.”

  “You Were Loved” by Trevor Corkum is an exquisitely paced and unflinching examination of how pain begets pain, a story about the long echoing aftershocks of parental absence and the dark crypts that exists inside us all. Corkum refuses all pat psychologizing, conjuring a complex, wayward man whose only defense is one of depersonalization and avoidance. With a sexual frankness rarely ventured in Can Lit, the story is nothing short of heart stopping.

  Ultimately, as a jury, we were left with the impression that Canadian journals are not only locating and publishing top-notch fiction but also, in doing so, raising the bar, taking risks, and evolving our national voice. It was gratifying to be able to read such a wide range of strong entries. We are proud and heartened to be in the company of so many new and talented writers. We hope the experience of being put forward by these journals acts as a kind of mentorship for all the writers whose stories we read, and not just those who made the anthology. Carry on. Make more art. Be tenacious.

  Tell us your stories.

  Michael Christie

  Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

  Kathleen Winter

  June 2012

  SHASHI BHAT

  WHY I READ BEOWULF

  I started reading Beowulf about a week ago, not because it was on the syllabus, but because I am in love with my English teacher. I would read anything for him. The cover of my copy of the book has a black background with the title in white block letters, and under those the jacket designer has placed the silhouette of a man, but just his top half, like a passport photo, except that the silhouette is made entirely of silver mesh. I keep turning back to this picture on the cover and wondering how they made it look three-dimensional, and half-expecting the pattern of metal to bulge into discernable features, to turn into a man’s face.

  Once I finish the book, I will begin to drop casual references to it in class or at English club meetings. “This reminds me of my favorite epic poem,” I will say, pretending I don’t know that it’s also my English teacher’s favorite epic poem, and then I will quote brilliantly, lingering on the alliteration. Mr. Sears will pause, turning away from the blackboard to face me, holding a piece of chalk in his hand. Sometimes, in my most reckless moments of imagination, I see him dropping the piece of chalk in amazement.