Congratulations to Long Branch author J.R. McConvey whose book of short stories won a 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

The prize supports Canadian debut authors by helping to kick-start their careers, according to a news release.  Three Canadian authors were selected this year.

McConvey, an area screenwriter, has been published in Malahat Review, Joyland and the Dalhousie Review. He was also long-listed for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize.

His first book, a short-story collection, Different Beasts, which is being recognized was published in 2019. It takes the prize in the speculative fiction category.

Judge Andrew Pyper says this is the ‘kind of storytelling that burns certain images into the reader’s mind.’

“McConvey’s imagination is curious and ready for travel,” Pyper wrote. “It was a difficult task choosing a winner for this year’s shortlist, which is good news for everyone.”

Different Beasts is a short story collection that explores the beastly side of humanity and the human side of monsters. The characters are both otherworldly and earth-bound, ranging from mutant angels and insectoid demon-gods to politicians and parents.

The 12 stories in Different Beasts ask what it means to be both human and monster. Shape-shifting waifs, haunted stuffies, scavenging drones, insectoid demon-gods, and mutant angels all come to life in this wildly imagined debut, according to the release.

“In this wild, fantastical, viscerally memorable debut, J.R. McConvey explores the power dynamics that undergird social relationships and crystallize into structures of fealty and worship, fear and control, aspiration and desire,” according to reviewers.

The Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is now in its sixth year. The winners were selected from a shortlist of talented Canadian writers. The shortlist was chosen by Kobo’s team of booksellers, with book completion rates, customer ratings, and reviews taken into consideration along with our specialists’ collective gift for spotting unique stories, new voices and under-the-radar talent.

The book is available on Amazon.ca