Loss. Grief. Centipedes. Silence. The word “no.” The word “yes.” A high school poetry contest that may or may not be linked to the end of the world. The characters in this collection are under attack. A grief-baffled son hopes to save an innocent insect from a toxic genocide, a daughter struggles to accept loss while visiting a community overwhelmed by denial, a sorrow-stricken father recalls his bizarre final conversation with his only child; the individuals in these stories discover how difficult it can be to let go of what’s gone in order to live with what’s left.

Jason Heroux is the author of four books of poetry: Memoirs of an Alias (2004); Emergency Hallelujah (2008); Natural Capital (2012) and Hard Work Cheering Up Sad Machines (2016). He is also the author of three novels: Good Evening, Central Laundromat (2010); We Wish You a Happy Killday (2014) and Amusement Park of Constant Sorrow (2018).Born in Montreal, Jason came to Kingston in 1990 to attend Queen's University and has lived there ever since. Translated into French, Italian, and Arabic, his poetry has been featured in several anthologies, including Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets, and Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008, 2011 and 2016, and has appeared in magazines and journals in Canada, the U.S, Belgium, France, and Italy. Jason holds a BA degree from Queen's University, and was a finalist for the 2018 ReLit Novel Award. He works at ServiceOntario, and lives with his wife Soheir, and their three cats, Akira, Pablo, and Neruda. He was the Poet Laureate for the City of Kingston from 2019 to 2022.

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The stories in Survivors of the Hive crackle and pop with Jason Heroux’s signature surrealism, inquisitive edge, and dark humour. While situated in recognizable, if labyrinthine, settings like a high school and a house with a centipede problem, these tales exude a huge capacity for slippage, like Dali’s watch melting over the ledge. Heroux possesses an uncanny knack for bending the everyday and before we know it, we’re in strange worlds rich with linguistic play and dissolving boundaries between past and future, memory and dream – worlds that are, in turn, grisly and hilarious, and often unsettling with the shock of recognition.—
Jeanette Lynes, Author of The Apothecary’s Garden
Jason Heroux is a magician. He pulls our world inside out and reveals that it was already inside out. These stories about mysterious poetry contests, affable centipedes, and bewildering nos either delight me or deeply disturb me. My head is spinning and I can’t decide which. And don’t tell anyone, but I can’t recall if I just read this book or dreamed it.”
— Stuart Ross, author of I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub