Description

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From the heart of the city to the edges of the Arctic: a brilliant and observant essay collection by a modern flaneur

In 1990, writer Stephen Osborne and his partner, Mary Schendlinger, began publishing Geist, a literary quarterly based in Vancouver, BC. From the beginning, the magazine established a reputation for observant photography, thoughtful essays, and off-the-wall humour, not least because of Osborne's regular contributions. The Coincidence Problem brings together Osborne's dispatches covering a wide range of subjects, from civic monuments to family history to global terrorism, the lynching of Indigenous youth Louie Sam, end times in the Arctic, and yes, even cats. A modern flaneur, he investigates the city, translates the ordinary, and deflates the pretentious. The Coincidence Problem confirms Osborne's reputation as an incisive writer of narrative non-fiction that is at once personal and expansive.

About the Author

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Stephen Osborne is the founding publisher of Geist magazine and a co-founder of Arsenal Pulp Press. His written work has received multiple awards, including the National Magazine Foundation Special Achievement Award, a CBC Creative Non-Fiction Award, the first Event magazine creative non-fiction award, and the inaugural Vancouver Arts Award for Writing and Publishing. He is the author of The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022 and Ice and Fire: Dispatches from the New World, 1988-1998. He lives in Vancouver, BC.