Alexander MacLeod

Alexander MacLeod reads from his story collection, Light Lifting

Published by: Random House Canada

Time of Reading: 4:00

Alexander MacLeod's first book, Light Lifting, was a finalist for the Giller Prize and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. It won an Atlantic Book Award and was recognized as a "Book of the Year" by the American Library Association, The Globe and Mail, The Irish Times, Quill and Quire, and Amazon.ca. Alexander lives in Dartmouth, NS and teaches at Saint Mary's University.

Every so often a new writer comes along with a true gift for language — not necessarily heavy with metaphor or profound imagery but with an elegant, conversational simplicity. It takes a certain clarity of mind not to burden sentences, and Alexander MacLeod has it in the story collection Light Lifting....The stories veer toward darkness — he explores two world-class runners and the insidious nature of competition; the trauma of peer pressure; the terrors of young parents, the proud sorrow of single mothers and the embarrassment of their children. MacLeod's graceful writing lends these and other scenarios a humanity, a community of hardship and survival. In this way they move forward; the characters move forward; life goes on.
 
Los Angeles Times

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