Excerpt

My own personal anxiety has been the mean, twisted, maniacal life partner I drag from apartment to house, and over the midnight mark into every new year, despite promises to finally kick it to the curb. It sticks and it sings and more than anything, it tells stories... And so, anxiety and I, with our storytelling genes, we exist in a kind of friendly/dysfunctional competition that’s been set up between us—who can tell the most powerful stories and which one will determine how I feel that day.

Table of contents

 

Introduction

 

Horror Stories

In the Beginning

Looking for Solace

Night Terrors

Manifesting Good and the Good Days as Bad Omens

 

Healing Stories

Mapping and Kinship

Medicine

Laughter and Survival

Warnings

Rougarou

 

How to Stand Up

Lee Maracle and the Way to Stand

The Double-Edged Sword of Being a Writer

Living Through Writing

Creating Optimism

 

Keeping an Anthology (Of Both, But in Order]

How to Avoid the Edit Reel

How to Curate the Anthology

The Celebration of You

RuPaul’s Present

How We Begin

 

Description

An Anthology of Monsters by Cherie Dimaline, award-winning author of The Marrow Thieves, is the tale of an intricate dance with life-long anxiety. It is about how the stories we tell ourselves can help reshape the ways in which we think, cope, and ultimately survive. Using examples from her books, from her mère, and from her own late night worry sessions, Dimaline choreographs a deeply personal narrative about all the ways in which we tell stories. She reveals how to collect and curate our stories, how they elicit difficult and beautiful conversations, and how family and community is a place of refuge and strength.

Reviews

#7 on Edmonton Non-fiction Bestsellers list, March 26, 2023

#6 on Edmonton Non-fiction Bestsellers list, April 30, 2023

"Dimaline depicts anxiety and regret as a pushy house guest with a photographic memory.... Many recollections are funny and not at all hurtful.... Other recollections bring a stab of pain... Dimaline finds safety in family and words." Holly Doan, Blacklock's Reporter, June 17, 2023 [Full article at https://www.blacklocks.ca/review-thanks-for-the-memories]

#7 on Calgary Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, October 12, 2023