Red Girl Rat Boy

New collection from a writer who has won four major fiction prizes from institutions and magazines across Canada Possible blurbs from Maureen McHugh, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Kathleen Winter, Anakana Schofield, Caroline Adderson, Annabel Lyon Voice-driven stories (compare: Anakana Schofield), highly inflected, with remarkable character range (of age, class, even species—one of the stories is partly told from the point-of-view of a leopardess!) Stark black and red cover to emphasize noir-ish element Surreal and slightly gothic stories exploring the inner psychological lives of their protagonists; mostly but not exclusively women; what makes them unique is their settings and Flood's ability to mimic her subject's voice with descriptive 3rd-person prose There aren't news tie-ins per se, but a few stories have subject-specific hooks we could pitch at non-literary magazines and/or bloggers (there's a story told from the perspective of an imprisoned wild cat, for example, and another about sleep deprivation in new parents). If there’s one thing that characterizes her elegant, crystal-sharp short stories, it’s that element of surprise they reward the attentive reader with surprise and delight”-Dave Margoshes, author of A Book of Great Worth