The history of the American/Vietnam War has always interested me. I believe this came about by being raised in British Columbia where it was known to be a refuge for American men running from the US draft. My novel, The Strait of Anian, centres around a Vietnam War orphan, raised in Vancouver, who goes to Port Angeles, in Washington State, in search of a man who claims to be her birth father.

An ultimate tenet of writing literature is to strive for characters that comprise an unflinching honesty about themselves and the world. As Albert Camus said, Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. Corinne Manning’s short stories in, We Had No Rules takes this tenet and runs with it.

Sofi Papamarko’s collection of short stories, Radium Girl, is a grab bag of serious fun, serious situations, and startling revelations. Many of these stories could have easily strayed into cliché, as they dabble on the edge of domestic situations we will all find familiar but manage to keep their crisp edge of surprise.

Arborescent, the title of Marc Herman Lynch's novel, means tree-like but one does not need to know this to enjoy or be confounded by the twists and turns that the story takes.