Beginning with the Mirror

Jean Genet stated: ''Anyone who knows a strange fact shares in its singularity.'' A few strange facts within this book, the latest collection by Shirley Jackson award finalist, Peter Dubé, are: the heat within a boy or a man can be muscular, be with purpose, be all consuming; mobs become consuming entities, shifting and hungry and with no humane intention despite being once composed of humanity; poets and actresses and students are words and words have power and resonance and walk on two legs and sometimes soar but more often haunt; and we can never forget that memories batter and wound, their shape defined like a blade or reflective like a silver-backed mirror. Dubé's short stories are eerie and fantastical and chip away at the known world until there are wide cracks that reveal many a strange fact to all of us at once. Features an introduction by award-winning author Elizabeth Hand.

"Montreal author Peter Dubé's new short-story collection affirms his place at the forefront of gay surrealist fiction."--Quill & Quire

"One of the most prominent voices of the country's gay lit culture, Dubé has always sought to, in his own words, 'chip away at the known world,' looking for the magical in the everyday and finding literary forms to reflect his characters' fluid identities."--The Montreal Gazette

"Peter Dubé's latest book is a layered, nuanced work that engages both the intellect and the heart."--Matrix Magazine

"The author's style is as fluid as the plots of the stories, and he makes it look effortless. Each story is distinct, and some are intensely moving. Lovers of adult fantasy will undoubtedly find something here to their liking."--The Gay and Lesbian Review