Winner, 2025 Fred Kerner Book Award
Award–winning author Jen Currin presents remarkable and sometimes magical new stories of queer friendship and love, against the backdrop of city life.
The stories in Disembark feature queer characters navigating new worlds, new circumstances, and new methods of relating to the people around them. With resonant imagery and clear, lyrical prose, Jen Currin weaves vibrant narratives showcasing queer relationships—be they platonic, romantic, or somewhere in between. A banshee shacks up with a lesbian couple in a rocky relationship, a lonely teen is gifted a knife by their mother’s boyfriend, a queer woman finds herself heartbroken when her best friend fails her at a crucial moment, and a young alcoholic hashes things out with their mother in the afterlife. In modes both realist and fantastic, the profound and eloquent stories in Disembark provide a glimpse into the unexpected, offering insight into the ways we relate in this world and in worlds beyond.
Winner, 2025 Fred Kerner Book Award
Award–winning author Jen Currin presents remarkable and sometimes magical new stories of queer friendship and love, against the backdrop of city life.
The stories in Disembark feature queer characters navigating new worlds, new circumstances, and new methods of relating to the people around them. With resonant imagery and clear, lyrical prose, Jen Currin weaves vibrant narratives showcasing queer relationships—be they platonic, romantic, or somewhere in between. A banshee shacks up with a lesbian couple in a rocky relationship, a lonely teen is gifted a knife by their mother’s boyfriend, a queer woman finds herself heartbroken when her best friend fails her at a crucial moment, and a young alcoholic hashes things out with their mother in the afterlife. In modes both realist and fantastic, the profound and eloquent stories in Disembark provide a glimpse into the unexpected, offering insight into the ways we relate in this world and in worlds beyond.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — May 14, 2024 |
| Specifications | 264 pages | 5.5 in x 7 in |
| Keywords | Vancouver; Bad endings; Lindsay Wong; Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality; Melissa Broder; Milk Fed; Chappell Roan; Peacocks of Instagram; Chrysalis; |
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Supporting Resources
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
JEN CURRIN is the author of seven books, including Hider/Seeker: Stories, which was a finalist for a ReLit Award and was named a 2018 Globe and Mail Best Book, and The Inquisition Yours, which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award and was a Lambda finalist. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, on the traditional territories of the Multnomah, Chinook, Clackamas, and other tribes, Currin lives in New Westminster, BC, on unceded Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, and Musqueam territories and teaches creative writing and English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. |
| Written By |
|
JEN CURRIN is the author of seven books, including Hider/Seeker: Stories, which was a finalist for a ReLit Award and was named a 2018 Globe and Mail Best Book, and The Inquisition Yours, which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award and was a Lambda finalist. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, on the traditional territories of the Multnomah, Chinook, Clackamas, and other tribes, Currin lives in New Westminster, BC, on unceded Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, and Musqueam territories and teaches creative writing and English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. |
Winner, Fred Kerner Book Award, 2025
Short-listed, SCWES BC Book Awards for BC Authors, 2024
“Nimble, irreverent … [Currin delivers] results that are delightful and artful and clever.” — EVENT Magazine
“Readers are fortunate: these stories not only chronicle our despair, but also gesture towards what lies beyond.” — British Columbia Review
“With profound insight, Currin’s writing draws readers into the spaces of human connection as we meet characters falling in and out of love and friendship. Through these unique stories, Disembark illustrates the universal complexities of intimacy and Currin is able to capture the nuances of multifaceted relationship dynamics.” — West Trade Review
"Disembark is profoundly resonating, sometimes humorous, but always satisfying in its astonishing, fantastical scenarios. Currin is a remarkable writer whose stories examine how characters navigate the unexpected and find new meaning and emotion in places where us ordinary mortals dare not go. A terrific collection." — Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo and Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality
”"Disembark is a deliciously sensual collection of stories. From haunted love to the last gasp of the patriarchy, each tale is imaginative and compelling—like watching the queerest season of Black Mirror. How does Currin do it? How can a chronicle of such achingly human complexities still feel like a heart salve? Shhh, friends, just read on!" — Carleigh Baker, author of Last Woman and Bad Endings
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