REcent NEWS & Publications:

Upcoming summer 2026: Barb’s spoof on Neighbourhood Watch emails will appear in Little Old Lady — a comedy magazine founded by sage comediennes “with a zero-fucks-given attitude.”

Good News! “Walking Jello”, first Published in UBC Magazine, won the 2026 Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story. Read it here.

Juror’s comments:

A masterful story which doubles as an absorbing existential riddle, Walking Jello covers a life-sized territory in a very short space. The narrative effortlessly moves from Chandra’s first days at university to her adulthood in and out of the cancer ward, and then to her daughter’s own path to university. They both keep returning to the elusive trick of making jello walk up your arm, and structuring the story around a seemingly mundane, silly act is a gamble that pays off brilliantly. Like the trick itself, the deceptively simple conceit is a wonder once executed, and by its conclusion we are glimpsing the fleeting magic, beauty, and strangeness of life, all at once. With a foundation of clear-eyed prose, the work is sublimely confident and subtle, trusting the reader to find their way to the mystery at its heart.

Booktubing (May, 2026): Join Barb and booktuber Shawn Breathes Books as they launch their 4th annual novella project. Find out which 6 novellas are on the 2026 menu, read them, and come back in the fall to hear the highly opinionated discussion.