The fiction and prose selections included in Charleswood Road contrast stark reality with fantasy, mortality with transcendence and explore both the mundane and pivotal choices people make in shaping their world. Each selection, neither predictable nor conventional, challenges one's assumptions of what is real and what is possible and inspires one to question the role of fate and fortune in one's own life. From first kisses to last breaths and everything in between, sentiment is stripped away to reveal both the allure and acrimony of humanity. Rich and varied, bleak and hopeful, this remarkable collection of short stories and poetry pulls focus on our limitations and in spite of these limitations, our willingness to see each day to the end. The title offering is a wholly original and candid coming of age piece loosely based around real events in the city of Winnipeg. AUTHOR: M. C. Joudrey, Canadian writer, artist, and designer. His collection of short stories, Charleswood Road: Stories, received a Manitoba Book Awards nomination for Most Promising Writer. He has been a member of the selection committee for the CBC Short Fiction Prize and a jury member for the Manitoba Book Awards. He is also a bookbinder with works held in various galleries internationally.
