Acclaimed Tsawwassen author Janice Lynn Mather is thrilled to release her adult debut entitled Uncertain Kin on April 26 with Doubleday Canada.
A recognized author for young adults, her previous books include Learning to Breathe, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and Facing the Sun, which won the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.
Originally from the Bahamas, Mather has lived in Tsawwassen since 2011.
Uncertain Kin is described as a luminous collection of linked stories about the lives of women and girls in The Bahamas and B.C. These 18 beautiful and haunting stories introduce readers to women and girls searching for identity and belonging during moments of profound upheaval.
In Mango Summer, little girls begin disappearing from their beds during one lush, steaming August.
In Morning Swim, a jogger, newly diagnosed with cancer, makes a sinister discovery on the beach.
In Boyo, a woman new to Vancouver struggles to plant roots in a city that doesn’t seem to want her or her young son.
“Some of the short stories are linked to each other, so over the course of the book, readers may see one character as a young girl and then they may see her as an older woman, maybe as a grandmother, so the stories are somewhat interconnected,” said Mather. “I think it was really happenstance in terms of what books were released first because I have written in various genres for a while now. I think, perhaps, Learning to Breathe was one that I felt was really ready and it was easy to find a publishing home for a full-length novel for, at that time, an unpublished author. Now that I have that under my belt, it has been a bit easier to find a home for short-stories.”
Mather says she is working on a third teen novel, which will be released likely in 2023 and is also working on another adult full-length novel to be released by Doubleday.
“I really excited about releasing Uncertain Kin because short-stories are my first love,” she adds. “I enjoy that smaller, tighter structure that you have with a short story, where you come in and spend a short time with the characters and when that time is done, it’s done. With short-stories there are a number of different opportunities for readers to connect, so I’m excited to see how readers feel about that.”
