Prairie Edge: A Novel
Written by Conor Kerr
Published by Strange Light
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Meet Isidore “Ezzy” Desjarlais and Grey Ginther: two distant Métis cousins making the most of Grey’s uncle’s old trailer, passing their days playing endless games of cribbage and cracking cans of cheap beer in between. Grey, once a passionate advocate for change, has been hardened and turned cynical by an activist culture she thinks has turned performative and lazy. One night, though, she has a revelation, and enlists Ezzy, who is hopelessly devoted to her but eager to avoid the authorities after a life in and out of the group home system and jail, for a bold yet dangerous political mission: capture a herd of bison from a national park and set them free in downtown Edmonton, disrupting the churn of settler routine. But as Grey becomes increasingly single-minded in her newfound calling, their act of protest puts the pair and those close to them in peril, with devastating and sometimes fatal consequences.
For readers drawn to the electric storytelling of Morgan Talty and the taut register of Stephen Graham Jones, Conor Kerr’s Prairie Edge is at once a gripping, darkly funny caper and a raw reckoning with the wounds that persist across generations.
CONOR KERR
Conor is a national award winning (and losing) Metis/Ukrainian writer and bird hunter living in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). Born in Saskatoon, raised in Buffalo Pound Lake and Drayton Valley. He is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta. His Ukrainian family are Settlers on Treaty 4 Territory.
Conor is the author of the novels Avenue of Champions (2021), Prairie Edge (2024) and the poetry collections An Explosion of Feathers (2021) and Old Gods (2023).
Conor’s debut novel, Avenue of Champions, won the 2022 RELIT Award, was shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon/Walrus Debut Novel Award and longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize.
Old Gods was shortlisted for the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Poetry and named one of CBC’s Best Books of 2023.
Prairie Edge is currently shortlisted for the Writers Trust Atwood Gibson Award for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
CONTACT INFORMATION
WEBSITE: www.conorkerr.ca
Instagram: @millcreekcowboy
EMAIL: cdkerr0@gmail.com
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An Explosion of Feathers
Avenue of Champions
Old Gods
Prairie Edge