• Grade: 11,12

Combining Stacey May Fowles’s humorous, biting prose with Marlena Zuber’s whimsical and raw illustrations, Fear of Fighting searches for meaning in the mundane. Set in the lonely, urban landscape of downtown Toronto, the story revolves around Marnie, a broken-hearted young woman fighting to find something more.

"Fowles navigates the devastating terrain of a broken heart with grace, humour, and wit."—Quill & Quire

Stacey May Fowles is a writer and McGill Graduate in English Literature and Womenâ??s Studies who has worked in the literary and gallery communities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Her written work has been published in various digital and literary publications, including Fireweed, The Absinthe Literary Review, Kiss Machine, subTERRAIN, Lickety Split and Hive Magazine.  Her non-fiction piece Friction Burn appeared in the widely acclaimed anthology Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (ed. Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Seal Press.) She has work forthcoming in the anthology Transits: Stories from In-between (Invisible Publishing) and Cahoots magazine. She is a recent recipient of both the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts grants for works in progress and her first novel, Be Good, is forthcoming with Tightrope Books in fall 2007. She is currently working her second novel, every other love that is happening to you right now is not this big and Unconvincing, a collection of short stories.  

Stacey May Fowles' profile page

Marlena Zuber lives and works in Toronto. She makes maps, illustrates books and magazines, produces drawings and paintings and is a member of the glam-pop indie band, Tomboyfriend. She also assists in running the non-profit art program, Creative Works Studio. In 2008, Marlena partnered with writer Stacey May Fowles to produce the illustrated novel Fear of Fighting, published by Invisible Publishing. In 2010 she completed a large series of maps and drawings for Stroll, a monograph of Toronto from a flaneur’s perspective, by Shawn Micallef, published by Coach House Books.

Marlena Zuber's profile page

"As gut-wrenching as it is delightful. Fowles navigates the devastating terrain of a broken heart with grace, humour, and wit."—Quill & Quire

Quill & Quire

“Stacey May Fowles evokes Lives of Girls and Women in a text that is often sweetly sad, but not sorry.”—Mariko Tamaki, co-creator of Skim

Mariko Tamaki