Best Canadian Stories 2020

Messenger, William E

Elizabeth Waterston

W.O. Mitchell jokingly called himself the great re-run king, but his retellings of age-old conflicts between humanity and the Devil strikingly display his versatile adaptive talents. <br><em>The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon</em> is a whimsical take on the Faust legend with a distinctly Canadian flavor. Filled with wry humor and set against the backdrop of a timeless small-town dynamic, the story of Wullie MacCrimmon's curling duel with the Devil combines the edginess of Marlowe's classic tale with the down-to-earth wry Canadian humor of "Corner Gas.". <br><em>The Devil's Instrument</em> depicts a Hutterite teenager struggling with conformity in a puritan society. Mitchell's devil in this play is a figure of sympathy, but lines such as "Happy? I am free!" invite the ambiguity of whether it is better to indulge in what seems natural, or strive for the divine. Introduced by Ormond Mitchell and Barbara Mitchell and including original production photography, this collection provides humor, sobriety, and wonderful storytelling with a dash of the infernal. An essential, whimsical part of Oxford's new Outlooks on Canadian Literature series.

Baetz, Joel

MacLaren, Eli

MacLaren, Eli