From the critically-acclaimed The Beggar’s Garden, “Emergency Contact” is the darkly comic tale of an emotionally isolated woman searching for human contact and love.

The Beggar’s Garden follows a diverse group of characters, from a bank manager to a drug addict to a retired Samaritan, a web designer, and a car thief, as they drift through each other’s lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Michael Christie’s debut collection, it won the Vancouver Book Award, was longlisted for the Giller Prize, and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

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MICHAEL CHRISTIE received his MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this, he worked in a homeless shelter on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and provided outreach to the severely mentally ill. A former professional skateboarder, he is a senior writer for Color Magazine, an award-winning publication that celebrates skateboarding culture. Michael Christie lives in Thunder Bay, and is working on his next book, a novel.

Michael Christie's profile page