Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome

Eating Habits Of The Chronically Lonesome will leave you struck, yet, exhilarated. The exploration of starvation and consumption is at the core of each character; what does our hunger reveal about the state of our soft hearts? Ellen jumps rope on rooftops in the searing Korean sun. She has sworn off carbohydrates until she can find pants that fit. Damon resents his two dollar chow mein bought on a Montreal curb. There are half-eaten poutines on living room floors and greasy corn kernels stuck to chins. There are weak cocktails, cheap coffees, white plastic forks, and cigarettes. Everywhere.These interwoven stories are propulsive. They pull back the blast shield to reveal blinding interior voices; unrepentant and raw. Coles’ irreverent characters scorch, and strangely comfort us, as they struggle to process the permeable nature of their thoughts. Such are the sardonically complex and humourous Eating Habits Of The Chronically Lonesome.

AUTHOR

Megan Gail Coles

Megan Gail Coles is a graduate of Memorial University and the National Theatre School of Canada, and is currently completing the UBC M.F.A. Opt-?Res program. She is Co-?Founder and Artistic Director of Poverty Cove Theatre Company. She is presently working on her debut novel (House of Anansi, 2017) and the Driftwood Trilogy of plays. Megan’s first fiction collection, Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome (Killick), won the BMO Winterset Award, the ReLit Award and the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award, and earned her the one-?time Writers’ Trust Five x Five prize. Originally from Savage Cove on the Great Northern Peninsula, Megan now resides in St. John’s, where she is also Executive Director of Riddle Fence.

Reviews

“Characters are the crux of this breed of lively, unrestrained short fiction, and the cast in this book are endearing, gut-busting, and memorably real.” Chad Pelley, The Overcast.

“…the tone is pitch perfect. Appropriately restrained and conversational. Coles is not your average newbie. She’s a serious talent who deserves to be mentioned alongside other young Newfoundland writers like Joel Thomas Hynes and Sara Tilley.” Mike Heffernan, Atlantic Books Today

“Coles, whose background is in theatre and playwriting, is the real thing. Deft with prose, gifted with voices, writing from a wry, wise and empathetic perspective, she is undoubtedly part of the established tradition of fine Newfound short story-writing.” Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This blog

“The stories are often very short, even only four pages, but in each she compresses situation (relationship fracture and reknit), character (distilled to their absolute wants), and setting (St. John’s, Montreal or Korea) like a literary Oreo cookie. It’s all about the crux, the crisis, propelled from the first sentence…Where does someone belong and with whom are core questions here, posed and answered with crisp, lyric prose.” Joan Sullivan, The Telegram