Auxiliary Skins

Overview

Existing somewhere in that chasm between bodily function and souled-ness, Christine Miscione's debut collection illumines all that is perilous, beautiful, and raw about being human and brings a new voice to contemporary literature. From the surgically gutted and the racially transformed to the story of self-excision that won the Vanderbilt/Exile Award for short fiction, this anthology is chock-full of razor blades masquerading as lemon tarts and everything in between. The writing and its use of imagery and language is innovative and calls into question the definition of a short story by challenging previous notions of the convention in terms of length, style, and plot. Inventive, assured, and accessible, the stories pair emotional depth with great technical skills and peel back layers to reveal the strange, the wondrous, and the unexpected. This provocative collection reimagines ideas of the body, the world, interiority, and relationships with the self and with others through a satiric approach, indelibly marked by wit, humor, irony, playfulness, irreverent analysis, and comic existentialism.

Reviews

"Deeply felt prose . . . a spare control that turns the reader's imagination loose, stories in which serious moments of childlike whimsy seem sardonically ages, stories in which the death of anything is a revelation of the life that is in everything."  —M. T. Kelly, Governor General Award–winning author, A Dream Like Mine Stoddart

"The results of the mad experiments in Christine Miscione's laboratory are sometimes twisted and grotesque, occasionally beautiful, often frustrating, and challenging and audacious. A few are even heartbreaking. But they are always magnificent mutants. Canadian literature would be enriched by more such laboratories!"  —Stuart Ross, award-winning author, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog

"I greatly admire the pared-down writing of "Skin, Just." It hits gut bone. A haunting story, truly amazing. Not a word amiss. I kept thinking about it long after my reading. And still do."  —Gloria Vanderbilt, sponsor, Vanderbilt/Exile Short Fiction Competition

Author Biography

Christine Miscione is a short story writer and the recipient of a Hamilton Arts Award for writing. Her work has appeared in 529: An Anthology, The CVC Short Fiction Anthology Series: Book Two, ELQ/Exile: The Literary Quarterly, The Puritan, and This Magazine. She lives in Dundas, Ontario.