(June 2008)

We asked you: "What was the best short story collection published in Canada since 1980?" And you responded. Let there be no false suspense. The top three you chose, in order:

1. We So Seldom Look On Love by Barbara Gowdy
2. Toronto Stories: The People One Knows by Daniel Jones
3. Something by Alice Munro, either Moons of Jupiter or Friend of My Youth

Interesting, eh? Click here to read comments from the editor about this arbitrary process.

Here are the other titles, the long list, selected by TDR readers, in no particular order:

• Yesterday's People by Goran Simic
• Six Ways to Sunday by Christian McPherson
• Long Story Short by Elyse Friedman
• As Birds Bring Forth the Sun by Alistair MacLeod
• Tales from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry
• Inspecting the Vaults by Eric McCormack
• The four volumes of Blaise's collected stories (Southern Stories, Montreal Stories, Pittsburgh Stories, World Body)
• Seven Dreams by David Demchuck
• Standing Stones by John Metcalf
• Natasha by David Bezmozgis
• All the Anxious Girls on Earth by Zsuzsi Gartner
• Whatever Happens by Tim Conley

TDR also asked publishers to recommend titles. That list consists of:

*

Plus a bunch from Porcupine's Quill:

• Adderson, Caroline Bad Imaginings 
• Barnes, Mike Aquarium 
• Borsky, Mary Influence of the Moon 
• Colford, Ian Evidence 
• Creelman, Libby Walking in Paradise 
• Dearing, Ramona So Beautiful 
• English, Sharon Zero Gravity 
• Glennon, Paul The Dodecahedron 
• Glennon, Paul How Did You Sleep? 
• Grant, Jessica Making Light of Tragedy 
• Kady, Vivette J. Most Wanted 
• McCormack, J. The Rule of Last Clear Chance 
• Miller, K. D. A Litany in Time of Plague 
• Sabatini, Sandra The One with the News
• Sarah, Robyn Promise of Shelter 
• Sileika, Antanas Buying on Time 
• Swan, Mary Emma's Hands 
• Tester, Royston Summat Else 
• Webster, Barry The Sound of All Flesh 

by Michael Bryson

I guess the first thing to note is that the list includes nothing by Margaret Atwood. Or Carol Shields. Or Mordecai Richler. Or Timothy Findley. Or Margaret Lawrence. Or Robertson Davies.

So much for the Canadian canon.

But then, the list also doesn’t include anything by Douglas Glover, Leon Rooke, Mavis Gallant, Lisa Moore, Mark Anthony Jarman, Lynn Coady, Greg Hollingshead, Norman Levine, Bonnie Burnard, John Lavery, Derek McCormack or Sheila Heti.

So much for the alternative Canadian canon.

The second thing to note about the list, is that it doesn’t mean anything. Or if it means anything, the methodology of putting the list together wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny. 

The list does seem to suggest an appetite among TDR’s readers for a more "experimental" type of short story than is typically associated with the form in Canada. Jane Urquhart’s 2007 Penguin anthology of Canadian short stories, for example, perpetuated a, um, reactionary aesthetic.