Mike Spry's debut collection of fiction revels in his characters' idiosyncrasies and shortcomings in ten stories filled with wit and reverie. In Distillery Songs' original and compelling narratives, dogs smoke, monkeys pop pills, cats are humourless, and Jesus drinks hot toddies. With a voice that Vallum magazine calls "a more obsessive, quirky, and pop-cultured version of Charles Bukowski," Spry confronts issues of love, loss, addiction, and desire in a manner that is at once funny, imaginative, and heartbreaking.

Mike Spry was born and raised in Ottawa and has spent time living in Vancouver, Central America, and Toronto. He is a graduate of the Creative Program at Concordia University in Montreal where he is the Managing Editor of Matrix magazine and the co-coordinator of The Pilot Reading Series. His work has appeared in the Soliloquies, Headlight and Pistol Anthologies, as well as in Matrix magazine. Mike is currently working on two manuscripts: a selection of short stories entitled Distillery Songs and a novel entitled Working up the Bottle. Jack is his first collection of poetry.

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"Spry is nimble. Spry is quick. Spry is lively, surprising, fun in a disturbing way and apparently incapable of writing a boring sentence. Distillery Songs sounds exactly like itself and not much like anybody else. These stories feel brand new and shiny and full of life." - Kevin Canty, author of Everything