Anecdotes by Kathryn Mockler

“Part coming of age and part end times, Anecdotes is a bold and brilliant mixture of dark humour, understated literary experiments, and a poet’s eye for the truth. Mockler’s writing isn’t afraid to look at the world and see it for what it is. Her stories are so deeply immersive you’ll never want to leave. An absolute must-read if you live on this planet and even if you don’t.” —Carleigh Baker, author of Bad Endings

“‘What happened to you?’ Terrible things do happen. Daily. From the opening story of a dead boy nobody loved, to anxiety-ridden days of overcrowded public buses and murderous job interviews, to birds dropping from the sky, to no one needing money anymore [or a stolen laptop] because the world is ending today and everyone still thinks it’s happening to someone else while it’s happening to them. Is it too late? Of course it is! ‘What do they need?’ Don’t ask Pastor Rick. Like you, dear reader. ‘They need to hold on real tight.’ Mockler’s Anecdotes is an instant ‘post hope’ classic!” —Kirby, author of Poetry is Queer

“Utterly original, bracingly acidic, and always vulnerable, Kathryn Mockler channels Donald Barthelme having a psychotic break in this magnificent collection of coming-of-age stories for late stage capitalism.” —Emily Schultz, author of The Blondes and Sleeping With Friends

2024 Fred Kerner Book Award judges comments
“Kathryn Mockler challenges our preconceptions about what a short-story is and can be with this collection. Like Lydia Davis before her, she pushes the envelope on this form, opening new vistas for writers who are bound to follow her lead. Particularly engaging are the stories that play with form to bring us new perspectives on story-telling. In any collection this approach would be brave and challenging. When taking on topics like sexual violence, abuse and environmental change it rises above those laudable aims and achieves something more profound: pure art, gracefully achieved.”

“Anecdotes is a highly original and an intentionally jarring hybrid collection in four distinct parts.  Mockler’s bold and darkly playful approach to exploring some of the big issues of our time is an authentic and empowering call to action to anyone who’s paying attention.”

2024 VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award judge’s comments:

“More than mere Anecdotes, Kathryn Mockler delivers a kaleidoscope of compressed, heartbreaking, and hilariously vivid scenes from our age of anxiety. Visions and traumas, both personal and political, unfold as fabulations, autofictions, found texts and allegory (wherein “the past” laughs themselves silly at “the future’s” efforts to build their “dream home”). The end of the world is our daily companion—seen on a highway outside Las Vegas, or casually announced in a public library—but Mockler never lets us forget the very ordinary ways we experience endings: of friendships, love, self-confidence, or childhood illusions. How does one not despair? Mockler reminds us, in seemingly endless permutations of prose genre, form, and method, that “everything becomes beautiful when you realize nothing is going to last.” —Steven Collis

Press Coverage

What We’re Reading: Staff Writers’ Picks, Spring 2023 —Hamilton Review of the Books

24 Books by Past CBC Poetry Prize Winners and Finalists Being Published in 2023 —CBC Books

What to Read this Summer —Frieze

Most Anticipated: Our 2023 Fall Fiction Preview —49th Shelf

Our books editor on the 30 (plus!) new reads we can’t wait to cozy up with this fall —Toronto Star

Books of the Month: September 2023 Edition —Vol. 1 Brooklyn

7 Tragicomic Book That I Love: Kathryn Mockler —49th Shelf

Power Q&A with Kathryn Mockler —River Street Writing

An Interview with Kathryn Mockler —All Lit Up

“Kathryn Mockler’s debut collection of short fiction is a deliciously dark and clever experiment that succeeds beautifully. Across four parts, the book riffs through flash fiction, connected stories, and micro conversations, ending with a past/future blend of hopelessness that will appeal to any cynic—or perhaps even realist.” —Candace Fertile, The British Columbia Review

“I was pleased to have Anecdotes in my hands and immerse myself in Mockler’s work…Against this darkness, the light shines ever brighter. Mockler bravely looks into the void and reports what she sees. Again, Beckett comes to mind” —Michael Bryson

Reframing Rage with Kathryn Mockler —Reframeables Podcast

“In powerful, distilled prose, Mockler seamlessly blends dark humour with pain. Add in absurdist flash fiction, climate anxiety, micro-conversations—this is a book with existential bite.” —Catherine Graham, The Ampersand Review

“Mockler blends traditional form with conversation deconstructions, one liners, and flash fiction. ‘Past and future’ is a reoccurring motif, and provides an organic pathway to explore the trajectory of the climate crisis in our lifetime, and the media’s all too common ‘how did we get here?’ refrain. Mockler’s look at social nostalgia is particularly satisfying, with wildly relatable stories that offer the possibility for rosy recollection, and then yank it away with a grin.” —Carleigh Baker, 49th Shelf

“How do we act justly on behalf of our earth amid political outrage? Mockler creates a space for us to have this reaction and encourages us to not disembody ourselves from the narrative entirely. We’re all deeply interconnected with each other, especially with those we disagree with. It’s more important than ever to expand our capacity and to keep engaging critically.” —Mia Johnson, The Whitewall Review

“One-of-a-kind assemblage of short fictions, a book with one of the most original covers I’ve ever seen.” —Heidi Greco, subTerrain Magazine

“These rapid-fire vignettes create entire worlds and drama with speed, ease, and a trippy dexterity. Lots of fun and unlike anything else you’ll read.” —Shawn Micallef, 2024 Summer Recommended Reading List for the Writers’ Trust of Canada

Episode 6: Kathryn Mockler —Tim Blackett and Friends podcast

Episode 107 – Kathryn Mockler: Four Stories from ANECDOTES —Short Story Today podcast

“Anecdotes is a fascinating collection of stories, moments, conversations, and thoughts that are delightful and disturbing—often at the same time. I adore what author Kathryn Mockler has done: creating a book that, when I was done reading it, felt like a complete story—felt whole—but was made up of these shiny and sharp shards of life.” —Hollay Ghadery, 49th Shelf

“From kids bullied in a schoolyard to environmental collapse, Mockler sucker-punches her readers with the courage to shine light and comment on serious issues. Her writing is uncommonly direct and she does not try to sugar coat the hopelessness that many of us experience when contemplating the issues she puts forth. Yet, she does give us the only thing that could possibly manage such harsh reality— outrageously good humour.” —Deborah Vail, PRISM International

Getting to know Kathryn Mockler: An Interview by Deborah Vail —PRISM International