This past year, I decided to check up on some of the people I’ve met in writing workshops and classes. It’s been great to find that several are published and successful writers. One such writer is Scott Randall, a Canadian writer, who I met at the University of North Dakota where we took several creative writing classes together. Here is a description of his achievements as posted on Amazon.com.
Scott Randall has previously published three [story] collections: And To Say Hello (2014, DC Books), Character Actor (2008, Signature Editions), and Last Chance to Renew (2006, Signature Editions). His most recent collection won the 2015 Ottawa Book Award for fiction; two of his stories have been included in the Journey Prize anthologies (volumes 18 and 20); and he has published stories in periodicals such as The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, Grain, and Ottawa Magazine. He holds MA, MFA, and PhD degrees in Literature and Creative Writing and has taught writing at Seneca College, York University, Concordia University, and Algonquin College.
In Randall’s collections, his understated and precise style as well as brilliant humor lend power to stories that focus on the everyday: the quiet, slow rhythm of life, and the turmoil that accompanies it. Often the stories are told from the perspective of men, men who love their wives, sisters, nieces, and children, who respect their autonomy, worry about their safety, and grieve their loss.
I’ve read two of Randall’s story collections in the past few weeks. In the first, Last Chance to Renew, a couple taking an Advanced First Aid for Parents course fail the crisis simulation; a young man imagines the tragedy that could have occurred when his niece falls while they are playing; a man grieving for his wife continues to receive her renewal mail; and a married man becomes obsessed with a young woman he encounters at the mall.
In Randall’s most recent book, And to Say Hello, the stories are longer and include multiple perspectives: people of different ages and genders, those who live together as families or alone. In this collection, a young father-to-be is contacted by a former girlfriend on social media; a couple seeks help for their son’s speech delay, which test the limits of their marriage; and a family of seven deals with a mother’s Multiple Sclerosis. These stories, in Randall’s incredible style, are some of the most engaging I’ve read in years.
I hope you’ll check out Scott Randall’s books and enjoy them as much as I have. I’m excited to see that his first novel, An Unruly Little Animal, was published in September 2023. I look forward to reading it.
Karen T Miller 