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creative writer, Vigna also
decided to start teaching his
craft.

“So now as a teacher of
the program, both in Print
Futures and in the Creative
Writing department, it’s just
fantastic because I’ve been a
student in both: I know the
college environment and
what expectations students
bring to the table, and |
have experiences in both
of those worlds that often
cross over. It’s great to be

Bull Head review

able to connect to students,
or try to with that kind of
background.

“It’s great to give
back to the college, and to
give back to the writing
community in a small way
by trying to encourage
other people to write and
find that community.”

On writing

While Vigna still works as a
copywriter and instructor,
at the time of Bull Head's

release, he’s put renewed
emphasis on his creative
writing, as “now the focus
of my life is writing the
stories and planning the
books that I hope to one day
finish.”

For students aspiring to
join the fray of professional
writers, Vigna advocated
courage and dedication to
the craft.

“Until you respect it
for yourself, no one else
will. That sounds easy,

 

Published by Arsenal Pulp Press

“Tomorrow,” he says, “I was just
wondering about tomorrow.”

hile the protagonists in

John Vigna’s debut book
of short fiction, Bull Head, share
some common traits—a coarse
masculinity, a proclivity for
violence—the most overwhelming
characteristic they share is a
hushed, unutterable, throbbing
yearning for something better.

The eight linked stories in
Bull Head tell the tales of men in
various states of emotional and
physical disarray as they live the
hard lives often inherent with
living in small, resource-driven
interior mountain towns like the
one fictionalized in Vigna’s world.
These are men that work difficult
jobs and long days—labouring
throughout the day and looking to
alcohol, addiction, and women for
some form of respite in the night.
And, through the bleakness of it
all, they keep trying to do right,
with heartbreaking earnest.

The opening story of the
collection, “Two-Step,” introduces
us to the world of living in the
shadow of Bull Head Mountain,
as Earl forces himself to visit his
brother in prison in a complicated
gesture of goodwill, only to
discover more than he wanted to
about his own role in his brother’s
downfall. “Gas Bar” follows
Dwight, a man who lost his wife
and children in a sudden accident,
as he tries to get away from his

loneliness through an awkward
and ugly tryst with a young
prostitute. “Short Haul” explores
the shame of a man who turns to
strippers and fantasy to escape
the reality of an increasingly
abusive wife he doesn’t know
how to live with. “Pit Bulls,” the
book’s closing story, outlines the
quiet internalized chaos of a man
unable to let go of the family

he can’t accept that he’s lost.
Brian tries to find some sort of
purpose with dog breeding, but
his harrowing confusion can’t

be unraveled by anyone’s best
intentions—closing the book with
an image that steals your breath
and haunts you for days.

These stories are spectacularly
quiet, somehow weaving
unnerving grit and unpredictable
violence with glittering moments
of tenderness. At times, however,
the overwhelming masculinity
(save for “Cutblock,” the one
story told from a female point of
view) can position the women in
the characters’ lives as somewhat
shadowy figures—symbols of
loss or pain or inaccessibility that
often spark the hurt and violence
bubbling within the men. Still,
Vigna explores modern ideas
of masculinity with prose so
flawlessly descriptive that the
reader is fully engrossed and left
with an alarmingly satisfying
ache—similar to that which one
of Vigna’s protagonist’s explains
as “the sharp sting feels better
than anything he’s felt for a long
while.”

but it’s often the hardest
thing to do, to own it, to
say that I deserve the time
and I should make the time
to do this and honour it
this way. [And] surround
yourself with really good
people who support
wholeheartedly what you're
doing.

“To all students:
you will be rejected.
Guaranteed. The most
famous lucrative writers

in the world and the most

esteemed writers in the
world to the people who
self-publish... every single
one of them has been
rejected and will continue
to be rejected on various
levels throughout their
career. So make friends with
that and make friends with
the rejection, and get past
it. It’s never personal, if it’s
not now its maybe the next
step.”