Nominated for the High Plains Book Award The stories in Vermin are linked by themes of loss, longing and music. Stories in this collection have appeared in Joyland, The Saturday Evening Post, Room, The Antigonish Review and other journals and anthologies.

Descended from a long line of music lovers, Lori Hahnel is the author of three previous fiction collections including Nothing Sacred (Thistledown, 2009), which was shortlisted for the Alberta Literary Award for fiction. Her writing has been published across North America and in the U.K.; her credits include CBC Radio, The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, and Room. Relevant to the novel After You’ve Gone is the fact that during the early days of Calgary's punk scene, Hahnel was a founding member of The Virgins, a power-pop punk group that carved its place in Calgary rock history as the city's first all-female band. Today Lori teaches creative writing at Mount Royal University and The Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society, where she served as writer-in-residence in 2013. She has also been writer-in-residence for Alberta branch of the Canadian Authors Association, and is a co-founder and participant in Calgary’s Writing in the Works reading series. She lives in Calgary with her husband and sons.

Lori Hahnel's profile page

"These are touching, gentle stories about the lives of women and girls who aren't lucky in their beginnings or backgrounds, nor particularly wise, and yet, their stories, with their rare and tiny triumphs, resonate." - Sharon Butala, author of Season of Fury and Wonder

"Vermin is a treasure from one of Alberta's bright lights." - Angie Abdou, author of Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom

"In these stories, Lori Hahnel reimagines the subject of love... Writing with classical dispassion, she doesn't moralize, disapprove or romanticize. Instead, she sees and selects and exposes the wilderness of the human heart." - Cecelia Frey, author of Lovers Fall Back To Earth and recipient of the Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award

"...part of the strength in Hahnel's often funny, occasionally sad and always intriguing collection is that they take readers in all sorts of directions." - Calgary Herald

"Vermin is an immersive collection of short stories that demonstrate a notable breadth of talented writing." - Anne Logan, I've Read This

"These are well-made stories that offer convincingly conflicted characters. A hospitable, entertaining read." - Alberta Views

"The heartache in Vermin is composed with an honesty about women's lives and how often a woman's circumstances can be buffeted by patriarchy, sexism, or a manipulative man who didn?t deserve her trust." - Freefall