Telling Stories: New English Stories from Quebec

Three years ago Montreal’s CBC Radio [88.5FM] and the Quebec Writers’ Federation established the CBC-QWF Short Story Competition. The winning stories were broadcast on CBC’s “Art Talks” hosted by Katherine Gombay. Telling Stories brings together the winners and finalists of the first three years.

These are stories that explore a wide range of human experience from a diversity of viewpoints–infants barely beginning to grasp spoken language, elders awaiting death, strangers in strange lands, and the bored and lonely. Telling Stories is a collection of short literary tales that deftly juxtapose humour and pain, the quirky and the mundane, the urban and the rural. These new voices also showcase the multicultural reality of Québec life–the diversity of people who chose to live in this province. “One of the real joys of my work at the CBC is that we can actively encourage and support the talented and creative people within our community.” Katherine Gombay, Host of CBC’s “Art Talks”

Contests invite writers to be brave. Contests are not only about winning; they are about entering. And, believe me, it takes courage for a writer to seal up her creation, her baby, in an envelope and mail it off to strangers. But this willingness to be judged, this blind offering of a writer’s best effort, this self-exposure, is an integral part of the writing life. A writer needs to take the risk. Now and then the existence of a contest will inspire a book such as this one, an anthology of daring, sensitive, and thoughtful stories by writers who have written in solitude and now, in many cases for the first time, are about to make contact with that longed-for reader. Julie Keith, author and president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation