André Alexis’ short story collection, Other Worlds, has been longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize.

André Alexis is an author of novels, short stories, and plays. His 2015 novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the Giller Prize, Canada Reads, and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. In 2017, he was awarded the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for fiction. His internationally acclaimed debut, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. He is also the author of Days by Moonlight, which won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was longlisted for the Giller Prize, The Hidden Keys, Pastoral, Asylum, and Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa. Alexis lives in Toronto.

What’s the first piece of writing you had published?

A short story called Impressions of Africa in Descant.

When did you first come up with the idea for your book?

After writing a story called Houyhnhnm, I continued writing stories about parents and childhood, as well as stories devoted to writers who have inspired me – Kawabata, Landolfi, Dostoyevsky, Pu Songling, etc.

Which authors or books inspired your book?

The Chinese author Pu Songling was a particular inspiration for Other Worlds, as was Japanese literature.

What’s the last great book you read by a Canadian author?

Not the last one, but the one I read most thoroughly – because I edited it – Skin, by Catherine Bush. Also, one of my favourite books ever written by a Canadian: Xenotext 1 and 2, by Christian Bök. A brilliant diptych.

Did anything surprise you when writing your longlisted book?

For years after my father’s death, I had not been able to write about him. Then, after writing Houyhnhnm, my memories of him came flooding back, altered and strange. Other Worlds, as a result, feels very personal. And that, too, is a surprise, as my work is more often about the imagination than the realities of my life.

Who’s your favourite character in your longlisted book and why?

My favourite character is, probably, Tam Modeste, from the story Contrition. I feel he was blessed by fate to discover a resolution to a betrayal that had troubled his soul for a century. I think of him as having attained a peace that I envy.

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