The Decade in Fiction
As the 2010s come to close, we look back at a mix of your favourite stories and speakers. From foot fetishes to the perils of poetic success, this is the fiction that helped define Canada
The Shoe Emporium
BY LISA MOORE
His nodding effects a reluctant intimacy, as if many a customer could not get this kind of attention out of Steve
Bye Judy and Good Luck
BY MONA AWAD
Judy shakes her head sadly. She winces as if even that hurts. Then she tells us how she got so drunk last night that she decided she’d try to get her dog and cat to make friends
My Pleasure
BY ALIX HAWLEY
The McDonald’s had been there for decades, built in sunnier days, but it couldn’t last
Writing, Success, How to Step Back
BY JASON MCBRIDE
I was told there wasn’t a market for poetry until my book became a bestseller. What if success makes me lose my authentic voice?
Tax Niʔ Pik̓ak (A Long Time Ago)
BY TROY SEBASTIAN / NUPQU ʔA·Kǂ AM̓
Ka titi had been alive longer than most of the people on the reserve. She remembered when David Thompson arrived in Ktunaxa ʔamak̓is
The Rainbow Festival
BY SEAN MICHAELS
Every year, my mother transformed our home into an inn. The parlour became the gentlemen’s lounge, the dining room became the breakfast nook, and most of the other rooms were turned into guest bedrooms
Meet You at the Door
BY LAWRENCE HILL
I had been typing since I was thirteen. On my mother’s L.C. Smith, my friend Howie and I made up our own Typing Olympics
Seal
BY KATHRYN KUITENBROUWER
An endless sea, the horizon exquisite, with a particular blue-yellow light glancing off it
We Be Naked
BY ZSUZSI GARTNER
Our demands be modest. We not be asking for the moons of Jupiter. Clean air to breathe, clean water to drink
Working Clean
BY NABEN RUTHNUM
Richie felt around beneath the cushion he was sitting on and pulled out a miniature Raptors basketball, then started bouncing it off the wall behind the TV
A Recognized Man
BY MICHAEL HARRIS
Timothy nodded and listened to their footsteps awhile, trying to straighten his mind after the boozy dinner
A System From the North
BY ALIX OHLIN
For losing a child, she knew she would be fired. She had plenty of experience with fireable offences
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