Sam White

Mark Anthony Jarman rarely affords his varied characters moments of revelation or Joycean epiphanies. But he is nonetheless fascinated by the ways in which a single instance can reverberate across a lifetime. In his latest story collection, Smash & Grab, these split seconds are often occasions of violence, either inflicted or implied. A woman accidentally hits a child with her car and flees the…

Deep down, aspiring artists know that success relies on a certain amount of self-deception: a belief in one’s gift even when opportunity fails to knock. If years go by without any big breaks, most will allow this lofty hope to yield to the heavy weight of reality. Maybe a creative pursuit is better as a hobby than as a…

There’s a cliché that the writing life is solitary, spent in a lonely garret but in contact with a higher source of inspiration. With Kilworthy Tanner, Jean Marc Ah‑Sen takes aim at this notion with the reckless abandon of a hardcore band. In chronicling the loves, estrangements, and pharmacological adventures of the “Translassitude Movement,” a fictional Toronto literary scene in the early…

Maxime Raymond Bock animates Morel with a time-tested literary premise: That even seemingly unremarkable human lives are worthy of examination. That such examination, when conducted with empathy, specificity, and a generosity of spirit, may yield truths about yearning, regret, and redemption — in other words, the big questions. Published in French in 2021 and recently translated into English by Melissa…