Ex Libris Kirkland

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First Written 2024
Genre Fiction
Origin Canada
Publisher Hingston & Olsen
My Copy boxed set of short story booklets: https://www.hingstonandolsen.com/2024?offset=1733472000558
First Read December 09, 2025

The Short Story Advent Calendar 2024



I'm not a sucker for short stories BUT I am a sucker for an audacious indie publishing format. This is a beautiful little boxed set of 25 stories, each printed in its own little booklet. The first is Robin Sloan's In the Stacks, which we commissioned for BNB! Anyway I'm a big fan of this project, and disappointed that I only learned about it last year.

Noted on December 9, 2025

[From My smell journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters], by Katya Apekina]
And along trots Melissa (Marissa? From art school...) like a deer into a clearing and starts licking me. Metaphorically. What have I been up to since Art in America? Where was I living these days? I told her I had to sit down; she followed me to a bench and stood over me. What was I working on? She was fanning herself with an invitation to her own gallery show. I could see her straining to compute my ratio of potential: used vs. squandered.

Quoted on December 9, 2025

[A good first line from Ham by John Jodzio]
Lucy and I are having car sex when a bald eagle drops a honey ham near us.

Quoted on December 9, 2025


Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - .
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