appropriate for both academics and general readersuseful as a teaching tool for creative writing instructors (university or advanced high school groups)written by a professional writer who has taught creative writing for over 20 yearsexamples of bad student writing may amuse teachers of Englishby the author of the bestselling Elle (2003), shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of the Governor-General's Award (Canada)taps ...

A 16th-century belle turned Robinson Crusoe, a female Don Quixote with an Inuit Sancho Panza — this is the heroine of the novel that won the 2003 Governor General’s Award. Elle is a lusty, subversive riff on the discovery of the New World, the moment of first contact. Based on what might be a true story, the novel chronicles the ordeals and adventures of a young French woman marooned on the desolate Isle of Demons during Jacques Cartier’s ill-fated third and last attempt to colonize Canada...

Douglas Glover's raucous first novel was a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award and sold out its first and only print run in just one month. Now mystery fans and readers of literary fiction alike can once again enjoy this witty post-modern detective tale by the author of Elle. The eponymous central character in Precious is a boozy, burned-out reporter with an embarrassing nickname and a penchant for getting into trouble. After three failed marriages and a humiliating stint in...

To mark Goose Lane Editions's 60th anniversary, the editors at Goose Lane selected six tiny perfect stories for your reading pleasure. Authored by some of Canada's finest writers, they come from the sweep of Goose Lane's publishing history. Each story is part of this collection or they may be purchased individually in eBook singles. Here's what you can expect to find in this sexagenarian sextet:ALDEN NOWLAN's "A Boy's Life of Napoleon," a brilliant piece of short fiction adapted fr...

Savage Love marks the long-awaited literary return of one of Canada’s most lauded and stylistically brilliant authors. Slyly holding forth with subversive wit, Glover skewers every conventional notion we’ve ever held about that cultural/emotional institut

This is a novel based on a true story about a teenager who took his father's car joyriding one night just for fun. He was pulled over and arrested and sent to a detention center for fifteen months and twenty-three days. Unbeknown to him at this time, that his life would never be the same. The punishment would leave him bitter for a very long time and his parents absences during his months of imprisonment only fanned the flames.The story takes a turn going into his third month inside...

Land west of the Mississippi in the late 1870’s is tagged “Wild West” by eastern civilization. Law abiding travelers are accustomed to malicious road agents, thieves, and other scoundrels who make a living taking from hapless folks who can’t defend themselves. Johanna Stockton rides the stagecoach from Bismarck, in the Dakota Territory toward the Colorado Territory when, without warning, the coach is attacked by a gang of outlaws. The driver and all passengers are robbed at gunpoint, then ...

"A Shiny Christmas Star"-U.S. Marshal Cole Stockton and his best friend Laura Sumner both have fitful dreams about blankets of snow and starving "little" people. When they lead a quest to find the origin of the nightmare, four people come together in this heartwarming story about the true meaning of Christmas."Star of Peace"-Cole has a dilemma: he can't find a suitable Christmas gift for Laura. In the meantime, a traveling medicine show advertises "the fastest and most accurate gun...

Flint Stockton served gallantly at San Jacinto and afterward moved northward intent on gathering stray cattle and horses to start a ranch. He meets Johanna McKenna on a westward wagon train; they marry and strike out on their own to build a family along the Comanche Trace, the ancient Comanche war trails.Their first son, Cole, seems born to the gun. It is a wild, untamed, lawless land in an era where every mothers son carries a gun and knows how to use it. Some are better than othe...

Why do we read? What do we cherish in a book? What is the nature of a masterpiece? What do Alice Munro, Albert Camus, and the great Polish experimentalist Witold Gombrowicz have in common? In the tradition of Nabokov, Calvino, and Kundera, Douglas Glover’s new essay collection fuses his long experience as an author with his love of philosophy and his passion for form. Call it a new kind of criticism or an operator’s manual for readers and writers, The Erotics of Restraint extends ...

The Stockton Saga continues. It is 1879 and lands west of the Mississippi are still the Wild West and rife with lawlessness. Colorado, within the infancy of statehood, is alive with gold discoveries, open range for cattle, and new settlers. Wealthy, powerful men are looking to take over and control the state their own way. Gangs of outlaws harass settlers, stagecoaches are being robbed, and range disputes need settled. Standing against these unsavory factions are a federal judge and his sm...

The beguiling "Woman Gored by Bison Lives" is from Douglas Glover's 1991 Governor General Award-nominated story collection, A Guide to Animal Behaviour. Published on the occasion of Goose Lane Editions's 60th anniversary, it is also part of the six@sixty collection.