Though he is best known for his plays and prose works, J.J. Steinfeld is also an accomplished poet and in Misshapenness as in his fiction luminous poems reveal the struggle and, with distinctive good will and humour, the dislocation of the self within the world. The narrative records how so many elements collectively press and guide the heart as it strives for understanding and unity, even in those moments when the mystery is unresolvable and unbearable. Steinfeld’s overriding theme is the absurdity of modernity and the attempt by individuals to make sense of that absurdity. Misshapenness is a poignant book of transcendence and joy in the midst of despair, and aware of the world’s beauty and its pain, one can, as in the finest of Woody Allen’s films, persevere through grace and stoic acceptance. It offers senseful glimpses into a world, past and present, that is wondrous and damaged and, ultimately, baffling.

Poet, fiction writer, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot’s arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published twenty-two books: two novels, Our Hero in the Cradle of Confederation (1987) and Word Burials (2009), thirteen short story collections—The Apostate's Tattoo (1983), Forms of Captivity and Escape (1988), Unmapped Dreams (1989), The Miraculous Hand and Other Stories (1991), Dancing at the Club Holocaust (1993), Disturbing Identities (1997), Should the Word Hell be Capitalized? (1999), Anton Chekhov was Never in Charlottetown (2000), Would You Hide Me? (2003), A Glass Shard and Memory (2010), Madhouses in Heaven, Castles in Hell (2015), An Unauthorized Biography of Being (2016), and Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles (2019)—and seven poetry collections, An Affection for Precipices (2006), Misshapenness (2009), Identity Dreams and Memory Sounds (2014), Absurdity, Woe Is Me, Glory Be (2017), A Visit to the Kafka Café (2018), Morning Bafflement and Timeless Puzzlement (2020), and Somewhat Absurd, Somehow Existential (2021).

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