Migration stories are an essential component of Canada's historical/literary continuum; we need to know of such writings to rationalize about who Canadians really are, and where they are from. Aren't we all the children of migration? Where we came from, how we got here, who we were, and are, and who may become in time … such themes should interest all those naturally concerned about identity and origin; that eternal enigma wrought of migration. These short-fiction stories tell much about migration and Canada, in ways that are funny, ribald, tragic or contemplative, but never dull.

The author of a clutch of novels, plays, film scripts and short story and poetry collections, MICHAEL MIROLLA describes his writing as a mix of magic realism, surrealism, speculative fiction and meta—fiction. Publications include the novel Berlin (a 2010 Bressani Prize winner); The Facility, which features among other things a string of cloned Mussolinis; and The Giulio Metaphysics III, a novel/linked short story collection wherein a character named "Giulio" battles for freedom from his own creator.
Other publications include the short story collection The Formal Logic of Emotion; a punk novella, The Ballad of Martin B.; and two collections of poetry: Light and Time, and The House on 14th Avenue (2014 Bressani Prize). His short story collection, Lessons in Relationship Dyads, from Red Hen Press in California, took the 2016 Bressani Prize. The novel Torp: The Landlord, The Husband, The Wife and The Lover, set in 1970 Vancouver during the War Measures Act, was published in 2016 (Linda Leith Publishing). 2017 saw the publication of the magic realist short story collection The Photographer in Search of Death (Exile Editions). A novella, The Last News Vendor, published in the fall of 2019 (Quattro), received a Readers' View, Reviewers' Choice Award. A speculative fiction collection, Paradise Islands & Other Galaxies (Exile Editions), was published in the fall of 2020. The short story, "A Theory of Discontinuous Existence," was selected for The Journey Prize Anthology; and "The Sand Flea" was a Pushcart Prize nominee. In the fall of 2019, Michael served a three—month writer's residency at the Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, during which time he finished the first draft of a novel, The Second Law of Thermodynamics. Born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Michael now makes his home in Hamilton. For more information, http://www.michaelmirolla.com/index.html.

Michael Mirolla's profile page

Don Mulcahy, born in Clydach, Wales, and a Canadian citizen since 1969, lives in Strathroy, Ontario, where he writes poetry, prose, book reviews and newspaper articles following an academic career in dentistry. His work has appeared in a variety of journals including The Prairie Journal, Matrix, Coffee House Poetry (U.K.), iota (U.K.), Verse Afire, fait accomplit, blood ink, Tower Poetry, the Antigonish Review and Vallum, as well as in the anthologies Butterfly Thunder, Sounding the Seconds, Ascent Aspirations, the Voices Israel 2013 Poetry Anthology, Ekphrastia Gone Wild (U.S.) and “Writing After Retirement” (U.S.). In 2014 he published a political critique titled “Bogus Democracy”. He has written occasional columns for a rural newspaper, and is a book reviewer for Ninnau, the Welsh-American quarterly.

Don Mulcahy's profile page

You will lose yourself in this collection of stories by some of Canada's most imaginative authors. Each tale takes you to a different place (physical or psychological) that is both familiar and strange. Some writers reflect their own ethnic origins as they examine the universal human experience of migration.

Joseph Pivato, Professor Emeritus, Athabasca University

These stories vividly capture a running theme of this anthology: that there is an emotional and sometimes physical consequence for emigrating, for leaving behind the familiar home country.

Montreal Serai

Highly engaged reflections on language, translation, and identity.

Canadian Literature A Quarterly of Criticism and Review