Finalist, Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers
Genre-blending stories of transformation and belonging that centre women of colour and explore queerness, family, and community.
A couple in a crumbling marriage faces divine intervention. A woman dies in her dreams again and again until she finds salvation in an unexpected source. A teenage misfit discovers a darkness lurking just beyond the borders of her suburban home.
The stories in Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese’s debut collection, are by turns poignant and chilling, blurring the lines between the real world and worlds beyond. Varghese delves fearlessly into complex intersections of family, community, sexuality, and cultural expectation, taking aim at the ways in which racialized women are robbed of power and revelling in the strange and dangerous journeys they undertake to reclaim it.
Finalist, Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers
Genre-blending stories of transformation and belonging that centre women of colour and explore queerness, family, and community.
A couple in a crumbling marriage faces divine intervention. A woman dies in her dreams again and again until she finds salvation in an unexpected source. A teenage misfit discovers a darkness lurking just beyond the borders of her suburban home.
The stories in Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese’s debut collection, are by turns poignant and chilling, blurring the lines between the real world and worlds beyond. Varghese delves fearlessly into complex intersections of family, community, sexuality, and cultural expectation, taking aim at the ways in which racialized women are robbed of power and revelling in the strange and dangerous journeys they undertake to reclaim it.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Mar 14, 2023 |
| Specifications | 208 pages | 5.5 in x 7 in |
| Keywords | short story month; frying plantain; zalika reid benta; barreling forward; eva crocker; no stars in the sky; martha batiz; goddess; deborah hemming; creative writing; canadian literature; gender studies; |
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Supporting Resources
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
ANUJA VARGHESE is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Hobart, the Malahat Review, the Fiddlehead, Plenitude Magazine, and others. Her stories have been recognized in the PRISM International Short Fiction Contest and the Alice Munro Festival Short Story Competition and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Chrysalis is her first book. anujavarghese.com |
| Written By |
|
ANUJA VARGHESE is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Hobart, the Malahat Review, the Fiddlehead, Plenitude Magazine, and others. Her stories have been recognized in the PRISM International Short Fiction Contest and the Alice Munro Festival Short Story Competition and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Chrysalis is her first book. anujavarghese.com |
Winner, Hamilton Arts Creator Award, 2023
Short-listed, Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers, 2023
Every piece in Chrysalis is as subtle and punchy as the eponymous final story. Varghese’s women are like her words: brutal, elegant, and resonant.
” —Quill & QuireFantastical, surreal, complex, and often quite sensual. … A powerful punch of stories.
” —Miramichi ReaderThe stories in Chrysalis shine as thoughtful, surprising, horrifying, tender portrayals of urgent transformation. Varghese’s dedication to upending expected queer and immigrant narratives, and to spotlighting complexity in relationships is welcome and invigorating.
” —Xtra[Varghese’s] raw and poignant writing works beautifully to tell stories of belonging, family, and identity.
” —White Wall ReviewWhether real or fantastical, these stories are bound by women struggling with love and identity amidst their troublesome predicaments.
” —Wasifiri MagazineIn these delicate, slice-of-life stories, Anuja Varghese plumbs the depths of wonder in our ordinary and not-so-ordinary lives. Chrysalis is that rarest of books — a collection where the meaning of words shift and change even as you read them, rolling out a cornucopia of treasures. What a magical, wondrous book!
” —Amanda Leduc, author of The Centaur’s WifeChrysalis is a provocative, taut collection, depicting women of colour who have reached the very edge of their limits. Anuja Varghese writes with surreal, urgent, sensual prose, mixing folklore and myth with the modern world. Every story is a surprise.
” —Shashi Bhat, author of The Most Precious Substance on EarthThis genre-bending collection defies expectations and brims with danger, desire, and the pleasures of storytelling. Anuja Varghese’s surreal stories will take you places you'll never expect.
” —Saleema Nawaz, author of Songs for the End of the WorldAnuja Varghese’s stories are cheekily feminist and textured, her characters unapologetically monstrous and ordinary. I loved how many of the stories begin with deceptive quiescence and then twist into the surreal and subversive. Chrysalis was a joy to read!
” —Farzana Doctor, Lambda Literary Award–winner and author of SevenRuthless in its quest to leave readers both sweetly satisfied and ravenous for more, Chrysalis disintegrates genre barriers with some of the most haunting, delicious, and emotionally resonant language I have ever read. This is the short story in all its craft mastery. Anuja Varghese is about to become a household name.
” —Sydney Hegele, author of The Pump