The year we stopped

The Year We Stopped, is a collection of stories exploring how the first year of the global pandemic and COVID-19 profoundly altered our relationships and our lives. Stories are told from the perspectives of a variety of protagonists (therapists, athletes, teachers, grad students, unemployed, young singles, cross-border and mid-life couples, sisters, aunts, lovers, etc.) who navigate the tumultuous realities of 2020/2021 – from the gender dynamics of who gets the home office to attending Zoom funerals – alongside their shifting relationships. The polyphonic range of voices showcases the diversity as well as the individuality of pandemic experiences. Travel restrictions, unemployment, health crises, family separation, political polarization and polemics resulted in chronic loneliness, mental and physical health decline, substance abuse, and divorce. Most of us were called on to step up or stop. Disruptions to our lives made it hard to embody our cherished and valued personal and professional roles, leaving people stuck and struggling to find meaning and purpose in their days. Many people literally developed the behaviour patterns of depressed people. In these ten stories, we see characters who yearn for larger, more meaningful lives beyond their own boundaries, whether self-imposed or societal. They seek connection in the face of so much disconnection and struggle with the gap between the lives they’d hoped for and the ones they are living. Inspired by real world examples, I originally placed this work in the context of Vincent Lam’s Giller-winning collection of stories, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, set during the time of SARS. I also connect it to David James Duncan’s River Teeth, a collection of brief remembrances blended with short fiction, exploring the nature of what we will remember during the complex and violent process of transformation. In addition to consulting my own journals, notes, and emails created during the time in question, I was inspired by Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explore, and included formal experimentation in my writing craft, connecting content and form more purposefully in the collection, for example in a story that folds like origami, one shaped like a triangle, or another that unspools like a roll of film.Arts, Faculty ofGraduat