All Kidding Aside

Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal’s east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton’ s, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter.

Neil Smith is a Montreal-based writer translator. His novel, Boo, published in 2015, won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. His 2007 short story collection, Bang Crunch, was selected as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail, won the McAuslan First Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The Goddess of Fireflies, Smith’s translation of Geneviè ve Pettersen’s novel La dé esse des mouches à feu, was nominated for the 2016 Governor General’s Award. His latest novel, Jones, was nominated for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction. Poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jean-Christophe Ré hel is the author of six collections of poetry. His first novel, Ce qu’on respire sur Tatouine, won Quebec’s prestigious Prix litté raire des collegiens in 2019, was published by QC Fiction into English in 2020 as Tatouine, and was longlisted for Canada Reads. Ré hel’s TV series, L’air d’ aller won the Prix des é tudiants à Canneseries in 2023. He lives in Montreal.