Welcome to Stoop City, where your neighbours include a condo-destroying cat, a teen queen beset by Catholic guilt, and an emergency clinic staffed entirely by lovelorn skeptics. Couples counseling with Marzana, her girlfriend’s ghost, might not be enough to resolve past indiscretions; our heroine could need a death goddess ritual or two. Plus, Hoofy’s not sure if his missing scam-artist boyfriend was picked up by the cops, or by that pretty blonde, their last mark. When Jan takes a room at Plague House, her first year of university takes an unexpected turn—into anarcho-politics and direct action, gender studies and late-night shenanigans with Saffy, her captivating yet cagey housemate.

From the lovelorn Mary Louise, who struggles with butch bachelorhood, to rural teens finding—and found by—adult sexualities, to Grimm’s “The Golden Goose” rendered as a jazz dance spectacle, Kristyn Dunnion’s freewheeling collection fosters a radical revisioning of community. Dunnion goes wherever there’s a story to tell—and then, out of whispers and shouts, echoes and snippets, gritty realism and speculative fiction, illuminates the delicate strands that hold us all together.

A virtual launch was held for the book, and Kristyn did a tarot reading during the event. She was joined for the launch by fellow writers Sybil Lamb, Paige Cooper, and Shannon Quinn. You can listen to Kristyn read at around the 10-minute mark.

Kristyn Dunnion has authored six books, most recently Stoop City (Biblioasis, 2020), and Tarry This Night (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017). Her short fiction appears in Best Canadian Stories 2020, Toronto 2033, Orca and the Tahoma Literary Review. A queer punk performance artist and heavy metal bassist, Dunnion is also a community mental health support worker in Toronto.

Stoop City is available from Biblioasis.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.