Tuesday, February 25, 2025
7:00 pm
Shelf Life Books, 1302 4th Street SW, Calgary
Join us for the launch of Mikka Jacobsen’s debut short-story collection, Good Victory! This special event will feature a darkly spicy literary beverage pairing, in-conversation about the writing life and creative process, reading by the author, and a suburban gothic-style photo booth inspired by the collection where guests can have their photo taken with books, friends…optional puppets. And—in the spirit of this haunting, moody collection that shines light in dark places—mood lighting!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A woman finds her childhood friend working in a booth at a psychic fair in the West Edmonton Mall courtyard. A lonely neuropsychology student steals cocaine from his lab rat to impress a Tinder date. Teenage girls play a dangerous game and discover a portal to another reality. These penetrating stories explore the strangeness and absurdity of being human in the twenty-first century: high school dances and teen pregnancy, bearded ladies and neighbourhood flashers, life coaches and Dolly Parton karaoke. Both unsettling and illuminating, Good Victory shines light in dark places.
“In these taut, revelatory, slyly wry tales of sinister neighbours, distracted mothers, careless dads, and bad friends, Mikka Jacobsen probes the darkness that lurks around the edges of childhood and young womanhood with a gaze as unflinching and unsettling as Heather O’Neill’s.” — Lisa Alward, author of Cocktail
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mikka Jacobsen is the author of the essay collection Modern Fables (Freehand Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in Joyland, The Fiddlehead, The Puritan, Prairie Fire, Canadian Notes & Queries, The Missouri Review, and Lit Hub, among others. She won Alberta Views‘ 2022 Short Story Contest. She lives in Calgary, AB. Good Victory is her first collection of stories.
ABOUT THE HOST
Samantha Warwick has recently joined the team at Freehand as National Engagement and Marketing Coordinator. She is otherwise a local author and literary event host. Her essays, fiction and poetry have been broadcast on CBC and CKUA radios and appeared in various publications across the country.
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