Heather Birrell reads from her short story, "BriannaSusannaAlana"

Published in: Journey Prize Stories 18

Time of the reading: 5:38

Notes: A recipient of Concordia University’s David McKeen award, Heather Birrell has twice been included in the Journey Prize Anthology and has had her stories published in Prism International,  The New Quarterly, Descant, Matrix and She Writes. Her first collection of short fiction, I know you are but what am I? was published in April 2004 by Coach House Books.  "BriannaSusannaAlana," which originally appeared in The New Quarterly, won the 2006 Journey Prize and was also nominated for a National Magazine Award.


"All nine stories in I know you are but what am I? are to be savoured for the quality of their writing, the sheer sentence-by-sentence pleasure to be wrung from their wit and insight....There is a refreshing courage to Birrell’s light touch, a pay-off to her decision to eschew self-conscious profundity.  For, at its best, her fiction strings a tightrope between comedy and tragedy, and encourages us to walk that vertiginous edge.
—Cathy Stonehouse, Books in Canada


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