This spring we've made it our mission (even more than usual) to celebrate new releases in the wake of cancelled launch parties, book festivals, and reading series. With 49th Shelf Launchpad, we're holding virtual launch parties here on our platform complete with witty banter and great insight to give you a taste of the books on offer. You can request these books from your local library, get them as e-books or audio books, order them from your local indie bookseller if they're delivering, buy them direct from the publisher or from online retailers.
Today we're launching The Swan Suit, Katherine Fawcett's follow-up to Little Washer of Sorrows, which was shortlisted for the ReLit Short Fiction Award and for a Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.
Lisa Moore declares this latest collection "Wicked and charming by turns...nothing short of magical.”
*****
The Elevator Pitch. Tell us about your book in a sentence:
The Swan Suit is a collection of twisted, layered tales that examine what it's like to inhabit a body that betrays in a world that is not what it seems.
Describe your ideal reader:
The ideal reader of The Swan Suit enjoys getting dressed up in fancy party clothes, then taking them all off to go skinny dipping at midnight.
What authors/books is your work in conversation with:
The Swan Suit would love to have chat with book by Heather O'Neill, Etgar Keret, Karen Russell, Neil Gaimon, Aimee Bender, Ramona Ausobel, and Andrew Kaufman.
What is something interesting you learned about your book/yourself/your subject during the process of creating and publishing your book?
I like to rest my feet on something under my desk. For three years I rested them on a broken wicker basket. I learned that discomfort plus inertia can really stimulate the imagination.
If your book was a cake, what kind would it be?
Probably a chocolate cheesecake, sprinkled with the lightest icing sugar and decorated with edible flowers. The kind you'd serve at a dinner party with dear friends. But when you cut the first slice, it bleeds.
An important part of any book launch are the thank you’s. Go ahead, and acknowledge someone whose support has been integral to this project.
I've worked with a group of writers from Whistler and Squamish for over a decade. The support, feedback and friendship I receive from Stella Leventoyannis Harvey, Sue Oakey, Sarah Leach, Libby McKeever, Rebecca Wood Barrett and Mary MacDonald is immeasurable. Thanks so much, Vicious Circle.
What are you reading right now or next?
I just started The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. And I'm really looking forward to John Gould's book The End of Me. Gould pushed the boundaries of short fiction in Kilter, and I can't wait to read this new collection.
*****
Blending banalities of everyday human routines and dilemmas with elements of fairy tales, magic, the macabre and the downright inventive, Katherine Fawcett’s fiction is anything but predictable.
In this collection, reimagined folktales appear alongside stories entirely new, serving to defamiliarize us from the undeniably odd tales we continue to pass down generation after generation, and lend a vague familiarity to the stories of Fawcett’s invention.
One of the three little pigs launches a line of high-end, easy-to-prepare, wolf broth–based meals. The Devil is on a mission to steal a child’s soul, but is distracted when he develops a massive crush on the day-care worker. A man stands in the shower contemplating his future when he discovers tiny mushrooms growing in his body’s various nooks and crannies.
Fawcett’s wry humour and prodigious imagination are an addictive mix. The weird becomes normal, and the normal, fascinating. Subverting expectations at every turn, her matter-of-fact style and narrative skill make this collection a must-read for any lover of short fiction.