In Dreaming Home, editor Bethany Gibson has gathered together nine Canadian writers who are rapidly making a name for themselves here and abroad. By choosing the best of their published short fiction, she has created an ideal introduction to this recent "winning streak" by a very fresh and talented home team. As Ms. Gibson writes: "These stories come from first collections, published since 1996 by 'emerging' writers -- those whose names have begun to seep into our consciousness, whose writing we have begun to recognize as well worth reading." In her search for the best stories, Ms. Gibson rejected merely flashy or sensational work in favour of genuine emotional depth. Rather than impose a theme, she allowed the stories themselves to suggest one: "These nine stories are about home, whether that home is a place, a person, or a sense of security or belonging. Home is both a real and a psychic place which we leave behind again and again, which we create and then recreate...." The writers included are: Judith Kalman, Antanas Sileika, Michael Crummey, Joanne Gerber, Andrew Pyper, Elizabeth Hay, Mark Sinnett, Shauna Singh Baldwin, and Struan Sinclair.

"Dreaming Home is another little book stuffed full of great stories -- nine of them, all by emerging writers. My favourites were 'Personal Effects' by Judith Kalman, about a father leaving his home in Hungary, 'Going Native' by Antanas Sileika, about a family of DPs trying to fit into a Canadian suburb in the fifties, 'Serendipity' by Michael Crummey, about what happens when your father is too lucky in Newfoundland, and 'Devika' by Shauna Singh Baldwin, about a young Indian couple who find their own way to accommodate the expectations of Indian culture into the reality of a new home in Canada. Even with all this good writing, Dreaming Home weighs in at only 5 oz (150 g) -- another great bus book."
-- Geist [Patty Osborne]

Dreaming Home (ISBN 0-9680457-2-3) is distributed to stores by Marginal Distributing. You can also purchase it directly from the publisher. To obtain your copy by mail, send a cheque or money order for $14.00 [$12.00 plus $2.00 S/H] to
paperplates books
19 Kenwood Ave
Toronto, Ontario
M6C 2R8

---