Линн Коуди - Best Canadian Stories 2020

What a horse pulling a cart of cattle hides was doing in these ruins in Saint-Henri, Xavier couldn’t say, but his gut told him he had no business in this humid warehouse redolent with rotting carcasses, and that he’d made a mistake, and he should have just waited up above in his old car until traffic got moving again, so he turned back toward the heavy wooden door he had come in through, and when he yanked it toward him he found not Sarah but a rough tool shed with shelves full of unfamiliar implements reminiscent of medieval instruments of torture: pincers, curved-blade shears of black iron, bungs, knives, clamps, combs with outsized teeth, and mallets; the whole thing stank atrociously and made him salivate once more. He closed the door and opened it again, but nothing on the other side had changed. He went looking for the metal hatch with the fleur-de-lys, but everything he saw was made of wood. In a panic, he backed out of the corner, stood still, and saw that the cart had reached the part of the warehouse where the hides were unloaded onto trestles to be sheared of ears and tails by two Black men. Then they were tossed into a pile, while other men transported the trimmed hides in little wheelbarrows to a stream that flowed right through the warehouse. At the water’s edge, men with long double-sided cutlasses gathered up ever more skins, spread out onto easels to drain off thick, lumpy ooze which pooled onto the ground. A child came by with a scraper and pushed this molasses-like mixture back into the stream.

The husky man who had thrown the boy down earlier noticed Xavier and yelled out.

“Right, Étienne! About time! What’s you doing in that gear? In your togs now! We’ve got to fill the lime bath before Barsalou gets back from town.”

The man hesitated, slowed a little. Then he moved faster, and his voice rose a third.

“Mother of—that’s not Étienne—who are you, now?”

Xavier took off toward the open double doors the cart had come through. Outside there were no ruins, or piles of gravel or heavy machines, but a dirt road lined by rows of country cottages and pastureland dotted with grazing cattle; above there were no concrete pillars or interchange or helicopters, but a cloudless sky and pounding sun, and Xavier ran with no clear sense of direction, his knockoff Ray Bans tucked into his collar.

After trying to open the door, knocking, yelling, and just waiting for him to open, Sarah had given up. She was now halfway back up the ladder, hurling abuse at Xavier specifically and his entire generation in general. It’s not like things were better before. She didn’t give a shit about empty gestures of gallantry. But she’d always thought only true degenerates didn’t bother holding the door open for the ones who come after.

I am pleased to resume my sponsorship of the Metcalf-Rooke Award for the best Canadian short story in English after a hiatus of some years, and to present my cheque for this year’s winner, the unanimous choice of the judges, Kristyn Dunnion’s “Daughter of Cups.” It is a tough, disturbing, pitch perfect story of life in the slow lane on the shore of Lake Erie. My congratulations to Ms Dunnion.

In the tradition of Comments of the Judges :

Hey Leon, hey, Leon. Have you had a chance to read through that Best 2020 stuff yet?

Mmm-hmm. How ya doin’?

Fine.

That neck—thing?

And your knee?

So who…?

Well, there’s nothing to talk about, is there?

Right, precisely. That is precisely what I thought.

We are talking about the same story?

That Ohio girl.

She’s the one. Live to ride, ride to live.

Maxime Raymond Bockwas born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1981. After pursuing studies in sports, music, and literature, he published four books of fiction, of which two, Atavismes (Atavisms, Dalkey Archive, 2015), and Des lames de pierre (Baloney, Coach House, 2016), were translated into English by Pablo Strauss. His latest collection of short fiction, Les noyades secondaires , was published with Cheval d’août éditeur (Montreal) in 2017.

Lynn Coadyis the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of six books of fiction, including Hellgoing , which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and was an Amazon.ca and Globe and Mail Best Book. She is also the author of The Antagonist , winner of the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her books have been published in the United Kingdom, United States, Holland, France, and Germany. Coady lives in Toronto and writes for television.

Kristyn Dunnionhas published six books, including Stoop City and Tarry This Night . Dunnion earned a BA from McGill University and an MA from the University of Guelph. She has worked as a housing advocate to combat homelessness in marginalized communities. A queer punk performance artist and heavy metal bassist, Dunnion was raised in Essex County and now resides in Toronto. www.kristyndunnion.com

Omar El Akkadis an author and journalist. His debut novel, American War , has been translated into more than thirteen languages and was selected by the BBC as one of the 100 novels that changed our world.

Camilla Grudovalives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she works at a cinema. Her first book The Doll’s Alphabet was published in 2017.

Conor Kerris a Métis writer, descended from the Fort des Prairies and Lac Ste. Anne communities. He grew up in Buffalo Pound Lake, Saskatchewan, and currently lives in Edmonton, where he works as a part-time magpie interpreter, labrador retriever wrestler, harvester, and educator.

Alex Lesliehas published two collections of short fiction, People Who Disappear (Freehand), shortlisted for a 2013 Lambda Award for debut fiction, and We All Need to Eat (Book*hug), shortlisted for a 2019 BC Book Prize for fiction and the Kobzar Prize. Alex has also published two collections of poetry , The things I heard about you (Nightwood), shortlisted for the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for innovative poetry, and Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug). Alex’s writing has been published in Granta , the Journey Prize anthology, and many journals throughout Canada. Alex is writing a novel.

Thea Limis the author of An Ocean of Minutes , which was shortlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her writing has been published by Granta , The Paris Review , Globe and Mail , and others. She grew up in Singapore and now lives with her family in Toronto, where she is a professor of creative writing.

Madeleine Mailletis a writer, translator, and French Canadian. Her stories have been published in PRISM international , THIS Magazine, No Tokens , Joyland , Matrix , and anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories 27 (McClelland & Stewart).

Cassidy McFadzeanwas born in Regina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently lives in Toronto. She is the author of two books of poetry: Hacker Packer (McClelland & Stewart 2015) and Drolleries (M&S 2019). Her story “Victory Day” was runner up in PRISM international ’s Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction.

Michael Melgaardis the author of the short story collection Pallbearing (House of Anansi, 2020). His fiction has appeared in Joyland , The Puritan , and Bad Nudes . He lives in Toronto.