In 1995, Canadian novelist and critic Hal Niedviecki started publishing Broken Pencil, a magazine dedicated to the zine scene, the independent and alternative arts community that had been boiling below the surface of Canada's culture. Broken Pencil's mandate was (and is) to bring the submerged cultural urge into Canada's collective consciousness, to help lift it up and lend it legitimacy. And this includes promoting writing, from writers within Canada and outside it whom nobody here had ever heard of or wouldn't touch, that was too weird or uncomfortable for the (all-too) serious literary journals, too visceral and punk rock for the likes of the Margarets and their ilk.
The stories in this anthology are outcasts. They don't fit into traditional CanLit and, in most cases, they don't even resemble the contemporary short story we've come to know and love. They are anti-literature. By and large, they read ragged, lacking the refinements of metaphor, magical realism, and perfect epiphany on the prairies. A few of them might even be badly written. On purpose? By accident? Who really cares? This is Broken Pencil, where the words do the work, voices are discovered and developed, and the place for sharp, offensive urban fiction.
Includes stories by Sarah Gordon, Golda Fried, Martha Schabas, Etgar Keret, Ian Rogers, Ethan Rilly, Greg Kearney, Leanna McLennan, Craig Sernotti, Janine Fleri, Karen McElrea, Matthew Firth, Christopher Willard, Paul Hong, Josh Byer, Derek McCormack, McKinley M. Hellenes, Julia Campbell-Such, Zoe Whittall, Joey Comeau, Emma Healey, Robert Benvie, Grant Buday, Sandra Alland, Kate Story, Charlie Anders, Jake Kennedy, Kevin Spenst, Jessica Faulds, Joel Shneier, Esme Keith, Christoph Meyer, Tor Lukasik-Foss, Joel Katelnikoff, Janette Platana, Federico Barahona, and Dave Hazzan. Editor Richard Rosenbaum has been the Assistant Fiction Editor at Broken Pencil since 2005, and lives in Toronto.
1. Foreword: The Case Against Literature by Hal Niedzviecki
2. Intro by Richard Rosenbaum
3. The Worst of Us by Sarah Gordon
4. Lindsey by Golda Fried
5. Natural Selection by Martha Schabas
6. Crazy Glue by Etgar Keret
7. Camp Zombie by Ian Rogers
8. What Sara Tells Me by Ethan Rilly
9. L-O-V-E by Greg Kearney
10. The Southwest Rapist by Leanna McLennan
11. One Kiss on the Mouth in Mombasa by Etgar Keret
12. Another Young Lust Story by Craig Sernotti
13. Gynecomastia by Janine Fleri
14. 9 Ball Tourney, Lotza Prizes by Karen McElrea
15. Some Kind of Betrayal by Matthew Firth
16. Little Wite Squirel Angel by Christopher Willard
17. Superboy by Paul Hong
18. Randal Isaac's Suicide by Josh Byer
19. Scarlatina! by Derek McCormack
20. Rabbit in the Trap by Paul Hong
21. The Jesus by McKinley M. Hellenes
22. Too Much Mean Me by Geoffrey Brown
23. The Napoleon Difference by Julia Campbell-Such
24. Check Mate by Zoe Whittall
25. Giraffes and Everything by Joey Comeau
26. Last Winter Here by Emma Healey
27. Into Collapses by Robert Benvie
28. 4 Stories by Geoffrey Brown
29. Amsterdam at Midnight by Graham Parke
30. Beaverland by David Burke
31. Summer by Golda Fried
32. Retard by Grant Buday
33. Things I Don't Remember by Sandra Alland
34. Parade by Sarah Gordon
35. Flame Retarded by Kate Story
36. Rats, Homosex, Saunas, and Simon by Josh Byer
37. Yes Man by Charlie Anders
38. Parking Her Car in Michigan Theatre by Jake Kennedy
39. Panties by Greg Kearney
40. Hands Held at Religious Angles by Kevin Spenst
41. Sickness by Jessica Faulds
42. Dandruff by Joel Shneier
43. My Lips are Sealed by Esme Keith
44. The sweet taste of slavery by Christoph Meyer
45. Ban.
