\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cI\u003eClose to Spider Man\u003c/I\u003e marks the debut of an exciting new literary talent: a collection of connected stories whose female narrators seek out lives for themselves amidst the lonely, breathtaking landscape of the Yukon. The young women in Ivan Coyote's deeply personal stories are looking to make a break from their circumstances, but the North is in their bones: so is their connections to family, friends, and other women. Like the protagonist in the title story, a waitress whose attempts to help a young co-worker saddled with a lunatic father finds her running across rooftops and climbing ladders; by getting close to Spider Man, she gets closer to freedom.\u003cBR\u003e\u003cBR\u003eStartling in their intimacy, the stories in \u003cI\u003eClose to Spider Man\u003c/I\u003e make up a moving scrapbook of what it's like to be a young queer woman in the North, journeys imbued with the colours of a prescient sexuality and an honest heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cBR\u003eRunner-up, Danuta Gleed Award for Short-Fiction\u003cBR\u003e\u003c/div\u003e