Close to Spider Man marks the debut of an exciting new literary talent: a collection of connected stories whose female narrators seek out lives for themselves amidst the lonely, breathtaking landscape of the Yukon. The young people in Ivan Coyote's deeply personal stories are looking to make a break from their circumstances, but the North is in their bones: so is their connections to family, friends, and acquaintances. Like the protagonist in the title story, a waitress whose attempts to help a young co-worker saddled with a lunatic father finds her running across rooftops and climbing ladders; by getting close to Spider Man, she gets closer to freedom.

Startling in their intimacy, the stories in Close to Spider Man make up a moving scrapbook of what it's like to be young and queer in the North, journeys imbued with the colours of a prescient sexuality and an honest heart.

Runner-up, Danuta Gleed Award for Short-Fiction

Now in its third printing.

Ivan Coyote is the award-winning author, co-author or co-editor of eleven books, including Tomboy Survival Guide, shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Nonfiction Prize and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. They are also the creator of four short films as well as three CDs that combine storytelling with music. Ivan is a seasoned stage performer and an audience favourite at storytelling, literary, film, and folk music festivals. Their latest book is Rebent Sinner. Ivan lives in Vancouver.

Ivan Coyote's profile page

• Runner-up, Danuta Gleed Literary Award

A proud, wry little book.
-Georgia Straight

Georgia Straight

The 13 interconnected coming-of-age stories of Coyote's debut collection are as blissfully rich as the countryside in which they are set.... [It's a] thoroughly entertaining, surefooted, humorous take on misfit love and familial solidarity.
-Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Powerful in its imagery, these stories present a deeply vivid and moving portrait.
-Lambda Book Report

Lambda Book Report