News and Events.

Two additional stellar reviews for Red Girl Rat Boy!

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The first is in Caroline Adderson’s essay “Long Story Short,”  in the Globe & Mail on 28 December  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/globe-books-2013-long-story-short-it-was-a-remarkable-year-for-short-fiction/article16116522   Adderson not only analyses the short story’s Cinderella status but also lauds four 2013 collections: Shaena Lambert’s Oh, My Darling; Douglas Glover’s Savage Love;  Kelli Deeth’s The Other Side of Youth; and my Red Girl Rat Boy. Of my work, Adderson writes, “Cynthia Flood has pared her style down to a clipped staccato that is at first jarring, then mesmerizing. How does she scrape the narrative so close to the bone, yet still manage to emotionally engage the reader? Because she’s a master. . . .”

And on 8 January, January Magazine released its lists of Best Books for 2103    http://januarymagazine.blogspot.ca/2014/01/best-books-of-2013-fiction.html

The magazine’s fiction choices include three Biblioasis titles: Mauricio Segura’s novel Eucalyptus, Lucie Wilk’s novel The Strength of Bone, and my Red Girl Rat Boy. Its reviewer says, “It seems such a slender book to have grabbed this small spot among my favorites of the year, but that is the nature of Flood’s power. Here the Journey Prize-winning author packs a lot of that power into 11 taut stories that celebrate and challenge women of all types. Flood is unflinching, but her readers might not be so brave. The author is honest to the point of occasional emotional and unsentimental brutality. This is amazing stuff.”

Brutality . . . that’s a bit startling! I just think I’m a realist.