Donner Parties and Other Anti-Social Gatherings

"Part short stories, part essay collection, Keith Cadieux's Donner Parties and Other Anti-Social Gatherings is always smart, occasionally heartbreaking, and just the right amount of over-the-top—it's everything I love about horror." — Nick Cutter, author of The Troop and Little Heaven

"Donner Parties is an intricate blend of stories and essays of the strange, macabre, meditative, experimental, the cosmic and weird—unsettling in the way it makes the mundane horrific, while exploring the nebulous boundaries of what is and isn't considered horror, along with chilling journeys that sweep across eerie Canadian landscapes." — Ai Jiang, Nebula and Bram Stoker award-winning author of Linghun

“Cadieux’s complementary essays and stories in Donner Parties and other Anti-Social Gatherings are inextricable from each other, creating a sustained work of horror that is both conversational and discomfiting. A unique and exciting collection.” — Naben Ruthnum, author of Helpmeet

"With stories that range from the quietly unsettling to the deeply and uncomfortably disturbing, Cadieux's masterfully written collection compels the reader to relish in the same obsession as its frame's author—to both seek out and interrogate what horrifies us."  — Joanna Graham

“Keith Cadieux’s Donner Parties and Other Anti-Social Gatherings tackles what we fear head-on, especially if what we fear isn’t the most conventional. From the first story and throughout, Donner Parties places empathy at the centre of horror— where others look away in disgust or revulsion, Cadieux’s characters peel back the curtain and take a closer look. This collection is a perfect read for those who scare themselves before someone (or something) else does.”  — Amy LeBlanc author of Homebodies and Unlocking

“These stories hook their teeth into you and burrow under your skin. Cadieux is a virtuoso of the creepy, the murky, the subterranean - these stories are as surprising and horrifying as fingers grabbing your toes from the depths of a midnight pool.” — Suzette Mayr, author of the Giller Prize Winner The Sleeping Car Porter

"Grotesque in its intimacy, Donner Parties is a dismembered text haunted by its own author. Cadieux's writing offers a viscerally entangled exploration of the horrific self." — Erica McKeen, author of Tear and Cicada Summer

In genre-bending fiction, Keith Cadieux’s collection of dark short stories are set against the backdrop of terrifying events. Using a narrative “frame/scenario,” this collection pushes various boundaries within the literary form and challenges artistic norms. These propulsive, linked stories by one of Manitoba’s most exciting emerging short story writers are gripping and taut, elevating short stories and genre fiction together.

Releasing in September, 2024. Pre-Order at McNally Robinson or your favourite indie bookstore.

Published Short Stories

Tim has recently passed away and left Lori with piles of expensive recording equipment and mountains of debt. Tim’s family wants to move on from the loss but Lori can’t let go, not while she can still hear Tim’s laugh as though he’s still there beside her. That is, until she begins to hear his laugh in odd places, like old recordings Tim never worked on.

Can love transcend to keep us connected through death? Or do we just create our own reality when we’re not ready to let go?

An eerie, poignant meditation on the paralyzing obsessiveness that can come with grief, and the inability to let go of even the most ephemeral aspects of those we lose. – David Demchuk, award-winning author of The Bone Mother

A deeply insightful foray into the disorienting territory of grief and loss. Lori’s desperate attempt to reconstruct her lost lover through the mechanism of his life’s work will move any reader, and leave them contemplating what their own legacy might be. – Alex Passey, author of Mirror’s Edge

Keith Cadieux’s mysterious, emotionally resonant Signal Decay captures grief in the modern age when loss means sifting through mp3 files and megapixels, texts, and email accounts. In this captivating story, he explores how easily the hunt through digital caverns can turn into a desperate search for hints and signals from the one who’s been heartbreakingly lost. – Lauren Carter, author of This Has Nothing To Do With You (winner, Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction)

Powerful and frightening, Signal Decay brings to life the desperate hauntings that come with grief. This is a gripping meditation on disorientation and need. – Seyward Goodhand, author of Even That Wildest Hope

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All That Cold, All That Dark

A young girl is forced to go on a months-long trek through the wilderness of Upper Canada with her uncle.

Edited by Darren Ridgley and Adam Petrash. Published by Enfield & Wizenty.

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Stuck

Sometime in the 19th century, young Henry James Mitchell is brought home for boarding school after the death of his mother. In order to best remember her, Mr. Mitchel commissions a photograph for which Henry must pose with his dead mother’s corpse; a process that takes several hours.

Named in the extensive Honorable Mentions list of Best Horror of the Year Volume 9, edited by Ellen Datlow.

Edited by Keith Cadieux and Dustin Geeraert. Published by Enfield & Wizenty.

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Donner Parties

Lewis Keseberg trains in secret for a sinister underground eating contest.

Named in the extensive Honorable Mentions list of Best Horror of the Year Volume 8, edited by Ellen Datlow.

Edited by Claude Lalumiere and David Nickle.

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Reprints

Donner Parties in Exile Literary Quarterly 38.4 - BUY HERE

Longer Work

As Editor