Fiction

The Animal Game

The Animal Game, short stories, was named “one of the five finest debut collections” in spring 2016 by Toronto Star Books. ”This engaging debut collection features nine stories linked by their central characters.... The other constant in these stories is travel ...MacLeod, a Kingston writer, writes with insight and affection for her characters.”

Early versions of the book's chapters were finalists for the CBC Literary Award for Creative Nonfiction, for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Contest, and for the Writer’s Union Competition for Emerging Prose Writers.

The Animal Game was included on the curriculum of Transnational Perspectives in Canadian Writing at Queen's University, where Kirsteen gave a reading. She was also featured at the Prince Edward Counties Literary Festival.

To order a copy of The Animal Game please contact Kirsteen.

"Geographies Inside and Out." "I’m very interested in geographies, whether that means hitting the road to reinvent yourself, or the first geography, which is your own body,” says MacLeod.

The Kingston Whig Standard

The Animal Game “centres on the idea of physical, inner and imaginative geographies…I explore the alchemy of person and place; the reaction between people and the places they are in.”

Kingston Life, Spotlight, July/August 2016

“The plot shifts back and forth through time and location, encouraging the reader to delve further into the rich lives of these well-developed, flawed, and interesting characters. MacLeod has an impressive eye for detail – her depictions of repeat visits to a tropical island are pure escapism – a great book to read once the chill starts to set in the air!"

“Great Reads,” Grapevine, Fall 2016

“The Animal Game is a fine debut with clear, vivid writing and intensely realized characters” in which “the narrator comes to…appreciate how divergent individual perspectives can be, thanks to her experiences travelling and doing yoga.”

Broken Pencil