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Return Stroke (CMU $20) is a collection of Dora Dueck's creative non-fiction and gathers ten of the author's personal essays as well as a memoir of 1980s life in the Paraguayan Chaco. From publicity for the book: "Graceful, curious and probing, these pieces are like a series of occasionally restless love letters -- to her husband and her children, to her sometimes crusty Mennonite ancestors, to the gift of writing, to the vocation of being a keen observer."
All That Belongs (Turnstone $19) is Dueck's novel about a recently-retired archivist who turns her attention to the difficult stories in her own family including a problematic uncle and a troubled brother. Dueck creatively combines details of the mundane -- such as an uncle nicknamed 'Uncle Must' who came from Russia, whose real name is Gerhard, which in English is George -- with a poet's turn of phrase: e.g. when describing a woman wearing a caftan who is leaving and "the hem of her dress undulating around her legs like a wave goodbye."
Dueck's second novel, This Hidden Thing, won the 2010 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. What You Get At Home (Turnstone Press, 2012) won the High Plains Award for Short Stories. Dueck’s novella, Mask, was also the winning entry for the 2014 Malahat Review novella contest.
Dueck's sixth title, Like a River Divides the Earth (Freehand $22.95) is a collection of five stories about people on a quest for tenderness and connection: a young teen sees her soldier father’s face for the first time; decades after leaving Russia, a Mennonite woman deals with a deep resentment from her past; a young man faces a shattering loss; a close-knit group of women are confronted with an event that makes them question who they are; and a tale about a mother and son complicates things for the one who hears it. Dueck probes what divides people and what keeps us together.
Dueck grew up in a Mennonite community in Alberta, lived for many years in Winnipeg, and eventually moved to Delta, BC.
BOOKS:
Like a River Divides the Earth: five stories (Freehand Books, 2026) $22.95 9781997534204
Return Stroke: essays and memoir (CMU Press, 2022) $20 9781987986105
All That Belongs (Turnstone, 2019) $19 9780888016812
What you Get At Home (Turnstone, 2013) $19 9780888014047
This Hidden Thing (CMU Press, 2010) 9780920718865
Under the Still Standing Sun (1989)
[BCBW 2026]
All That Belongs (Turnstone $19) is Dueck's novel about a recently-retired archivist who turns her attention to the difficult stories in her own family including a problematic uncle and a troubled brother. Dueck creatively combines details of the mundane -- such as an uncle nicknamed 'Uncle Must' who came from Russia, whose real name is Gerhard, which in English is George -- with a poet's turn of phrase: e.g. when describing a woman wearing a caftan who is leaving and "the hem of her dress undulating around her legs like a wave goodbye."
Dueck's second novel, This Hidden Thing, won the 2010 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. What You Get At Home (Turnstone Press, 2012) won the High Plains Award for Short Stories. Dueck’s novella, Mask, was also the winning entry for the 2014 Malahat Review novella contest.
Dueck's sixth title, Like a River Divides the Earth (Freehand $22.95) is a collection of five stories about people on a quest for tenderness and connection: a young teen sees her soldier father’s face for the first time; decades after leaving Russia, a Mennonite woman deals with a deep resentment from her past; a young man faces a shattering loss; a close-knit group of women are confronted with an event that makes them question who they are; and a tale about a mother and son complicates things for the one who hears it. Dueck probes what divides people and what keeps us together.
Dueck grew up in a Mennonite community in Alberta, lived for many years in Winnipeg, and eventually moved to Delta, BC.
BOOKS:
Like a River Divides the Earth: five stories (Freehand Books, 2026) $22.95 9781997534204
Return Stroke: essays and memoir (CMU Press, 2022) $20 9781987986105
All That Belongs (Turnstone, 2019) $19 9780888016812
What you Get At Home (Turnstone, 2013) $19 9780888014047
This Hidden Thing (CMU Press, 2010) 9780920718865
Under the Still Standing Sun (1989)
[BCBW 2026]
