Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Her fiction has appeared in Grain, Event, Prism International, The Walrus, and Zoetrope. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2009, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award and the BC Book Prize. She has worked as a horseback riding instructor, a reporter, and a bookseller. Willis was a writer-in-residence at Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, and was the 2013-2014 Calgary Distinguished Writers Program writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary. She lives in Calgary.

The Dark and Other Love Stories

The characters in these thirteen masterful and engaging stories exist on the edge of danger, where landscapes melt into dreamscapes, and every house is haunted. A drug dealer’s girlfriend signs up for the first manned mission to Mars. A girl falls in love with a man who wants to turn her into a bird. A teenage girl and her best friend test their relationship by breaking into suburban houses. Full of longing and strange humour, these subtle, complex stories about the love between a man and his pet crow, an alcoholic and his AA sponsor, a mute migrant and a newspaper reporter show how love ties us to one another and to the world. The Dark and Other Love Stories announces the emergence of a wonderfully gifted storyteller whose stories enlarge our perceptions about the human capacity to love.

Events & Tickets

Sat, Oct. 14 @ 1pm: Saturday Afternoon Showcase: Timely & Tasty Short Fiction

(Full event details)