normalwhatsnormal? is a collection of stories which explores the notion of normalcy, both in content and form, when it comes to certain human relationships and behaviours in our culture. The stories are of mixed genre (even genre-bending: realism, magic realism, fairytale, dream...) and mixed discourse (from the erudite to the profane). The reader finds the unreliable narrator, muddied/muddled text, plus allusions to art, literature, music, media, pop culture and so on to show how these outside forces -- rather than simply being experienced as 'noise' or 'filler' serve to radically affect a character's thinking and actions. To show, in fact, that these influences are used by people constantly as a sort of shorthand in day-to-day -- "go ahead, make my day" -- conversation. What is normal? Nothing is normal.

Born in Vancouver, Stan Rogal now lives in Toronto. He ran the popular Idler Pub Reading Series for ten years, was co-creator of Bald Ego Theatre, and is now the artistic director of Bulletproof Theatre. He is the author of the novel, The Long Drive Home (Insomniac, 1999), and numerous poetry collections, including Geometry of the Odd, (Wolsak & Wynn, 1999), In Search of the Emerald City (Seraphim, 2004) and Fabulous Freaks (Wolsak & Wynn, 2005). Lines of Embarkation is Stan's fifth book of poetry.

Stan Rogal's profile page