milktooth (Vagrant Press)

Jaime Burnet writes fiction, plays music, practices labour and human rights law, and lives with her family in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia. She is the author of milktooth, longlisted for the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, Crocuses Hatch from Snow, was shortlisted for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the ReLit Award.

milktooth by Jaime Burnet 

Sorcha is over hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties. At thirty-one what she wants, more than anything, is to have a baby. When she meets Chris, things get serious. Fast.

As Chris’s moods turn volatile and Sorcha becomes increasingly isolated, Chris paints an idyllic picture of domestic bliss in Cape Breton, including the thing Sorcha wants most. But when she becomes pregnant and Chris’s abuse escalates, Sorcha realizes she must escape the life they’ve built together.

While the bundle of cells in her belly divides, Sorcha finds refuge in a bothy in the Scottish Highlands with her estranged Aunt Agnes There, she daydreams about building the sort of family she’s always ached for. As long as Chris doesn’t find her.

A bold, inventive, and lyrical novel, milktooth explores the clandestinity of queer abuse, the fierceness of friendship, and the magic of found family.