The great granddaughter of Jewish immigrants and early French and Irish settlers, Carmella Gray-Cosgrove was raised in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Her debut short story collection Nowadays and Lonelier: Stories (Arsenal Pulp $19.95) features a line-up of gritty urban Canadian millennials from both working- and middle-class backgrounds. Gray-Cosgrove contrasts the experiences of the two classes as they seek access to education and art. Some struggle to secure jobs and housing and these conditions leave many straddling a world where mental health issues, addictions and sex work are daily realities. Gray-Cosgrove currently lives with her partner and child in St. John's, NL.Her fiction has appeared in PRISM international, Broken Pencil, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, and elsewhere. Nowadays and Lonelier was a finalist for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers.

Photo of Gray-Cosgrove by David Mandville.

BOOKS

Nowadays and Lonelier: Stories(Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021) $19.95 9781551528717

[BCBW 2021]