By Jen Currin
Hider/Seeker is the debut fiction collection from award-winning poet Jen Currin. These stories are about addiction and meditation, relationships and almost-relationships, solitude and sexuality. They take place in cafes, in snowy woods, on city street corners, and at Zen retreats — where conversations happen in the margins of books and filthy shoes are treated with reverence. Ex-wives reunite only to be confronted with their past; an aunt believes she has made a heartbreaking discovery about her niece; a seemingly never-ending hysterical pregnancy becomes the talk of a cafe. These stories are always unflinchingly honest in their portrayal of relationships — in particular the relationships of the book’s LGBTQ+ characters — as they navigate change, spirituality, and sex. Currin welcomes the reader into the complicated lives of her characters and invites them to stay.
Advance Praise for Hider/Seeker:
“The itch of addiction, the legacy of abuse, the heartbreak of love’s abrupt end — Jen Currin writes into difficult places with delicacy, humour and meditative grace, mixing magic realism with cutting edge observations of urban life. There is a tough tenderness to every one of these stories.” — Shaena Lambert, author of Oh, My Darling and Radiance
“I can’t stop thinking about Jen Currin’s book. For me, it’s about how the noise gets louder as you try to quiet down, how you notice everything crashing around as you seek stillness. Currin writes with precision, beauty, and tenderness about the politics of imperfect relationships and people struggling to find wholeness.” — Kevin Chong, author of Beauty Plus Pity and The Plague
“Jen Currin’s stories unfold in a variety of tones and modes: some hover like fables, some pierce like reportage, and others simply break your heart in slow motion. Through all their material particularity, and through Currin’s precise and agile language, glimpses of wisdom — both chased and accidentally revealed — recur. Like the ‘beautifully jeweled knife’ passed down for protection in one of these tales, this collection is a work of art that cuts brilliantly through to the truth.” — Wayde Compton, author of The Outer Harbour
Jen Currin lives on unceded Coast Salish land (New Westminster, BC) and has published four collections of poetry, including The Inquisition Yours, which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry; and School (2014), which was a finalist for three awards. Jen’s poems and stories have been published in many journals and anthologies. An instructor of creative writing at Kwantlen University, Jen also teaches community workshops and grows vegetables in her community garden plot.
