Bird Eat Bird, Katrina Best's first book of short stories, is a funny, smart, offbeat and insightful collection that explores themes that are equally poignant and hilarious.

A thirty-year-old woman who still lives at home anticipates the experience of a third date; a teenaged vegetarian supermarket cashier struggles to scan a package of offal; an inscrutable pelican in a crowded London park decides to try something different for dinner. These artful stories are tinged with social commentary and reflect their author in that they feature characters and sensibilities from both Britain and Canada.

Winner of the 2011 regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (Canada and Caribbean)

"Katrina Best has a stunningly original voice. The panel of judges was impressed with the clarity and depth of the world view that Bird Eat Bird illuminates “the deftness with which Best is able to distil a wide range of human foibles into an essence of social commentary. Adroitly demonstrating her mastery of the short story genre, Best presents, with polished economy, characters “human or bird” that need only a few pen strokes to emerge larger than life. Soaring above the competition, Bird Eat Bird won out on the strength of its compactness of style, wittiness of voice and elegance of its narrative choices."
-Antonia MacDonald-Smythe, Caribbean and Canada Regional Chair

"Katrina Best's debut collection is filled with vivid imagery and engaging scenarios"
-The Globe and Mail

"Katrina Best’s short story collection, Bird Eat Bird, is a fun, light read from an author who has mastered the art of quirkiness, deadpan humor and quiet desperation. The book is quite simply delicious, and reveals Best’s knack for witty dialogue."
-The Rover Arts

"With verve and quirky humour, Best creates colourful yet somewhat disconcerting images for readers to examin [...]Best also adjusts her word lens and zooms outwards. She provides readers with the internal and spoken commentaries of onlookers, narrators, and central characters, provoking thoughtful reflections in vibrant, clear, and upbeat prose."
-The Malahat Review

"As impressive as Best's dialogue is, her lovably round characters are the secret sauce that ultimately makes Bird Eat Bird so delicious."
-Broken Pencil

"Katrina Best’s Bird Eat Bird [is] an effective and witty first collection of short stories. Six cringe-inducing tales, Best’s stories are close examinations of brief and often disastrous moments in her characters’ lives."
-Montreal Review of Books

"The stories in Katrina Best’s Bird Eat Bird (Insomniac Press) satisfy in small, savoury chunks, cut through with concise, real dialogue and astute, often hilarious observations on the everyday."
-The Hour