Press Kit

ARTHUR UNDRESSED, an epistolary novel about a trans man trying to reconcile his relationship with his dead mother, and other works represented by The Rights Factory

For arc copies for reviewers of the Price of Cookies or Redshirts Sometimes Survive, please email Marion Lougheed of Off Topic Publishing at Marionlougheed@gmail.com 

For everything else, hit contact. 

Finn's press appearances can be found here. 

50-Word Bio:

Finnian Burnett’s work explores the intersections of the human body, mental health, and gender identity. They are a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts grant and a finalist in the 2023 CBC nonfiction prize. When not writing or teaching, Finnian enjoys walking, Star Trek, and cat memes.  

100-Word Bio:

Finnian Burnett is a writer whose work explores the intersections of the human body, mental health, and gender identity. They are a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, a finalist in the 2023 CBC nonfiction prize, and a 2024 Pushcart nominee. 

Their work appears in Blank Spaces Magazine, Reflex Press, The Daily Sci-Fi, CBC, contest anthologies such as Word on the Lake, The Wine Country Writer’s Festival anthology, Federation of BC Writers, and more. Their two novellas-in-flash, The Clothes Make the Man and The Price of Cookies, are available through Ad Hoc Fiction and Off Topic Publishing respectively. Finnian's next flash fiction collection, Redshirts Sometimes Survive is due out in April, 2026.  

When not writing or teaching, Finnian enjoys cold weather walking, Star Trek, and cat memes. 

Longer Bio:

Finnian Burnett is a queer BC-based writer whose work explores the intersections of the human body, mental health, and gender identity. They hold a doctoral degree in English Pedagogy with a specific emphasis on using story-based pedagogy to create equity in multi-cultural classrooms. Finnian is a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts grant, a finalist in the 2023 CBC nonfiction prize, and a 2024 Pushcart nominee. 

Their work appears in Blank Spaces Magazine, Reflex Press, The Daily Sci-Fi, CBC Books, and Pulp Literature, along with local contest anthologies such as Word on the Lake, The Wine Country Writer’s Festival anthology, Federation of BC Writers, and more. Finnian was a recent keynote speaker at the Surrey International Writers' Festival in 2024 and a keynote speaker at When Words Collide in 2025. . They have been a writer-in-residence, ongoing faculty, and regular presenter at several Canadian and US conferences. 

Finnian has published works in various genres, including non-fiction, romance, literary, and speculative, with a focus on diverse topics such as gender identity, sexuality, mental health, and social justice. Finnian's short fiction has been nominated for awards such as Best Microfiction, Best Short Fiction, and Best of the Net, and they have been shortlisted or won with the Bath Flash Fiction Awards, Reflex Press, The London Independent Story Prize, Oxford Flash Fiction, Bridport, National Flash Fiction Day, and more.

Their two novellas-in-flash, The Clothes Make the Man and The Price of Cookies, are available through Ad Hoc Fiction and Off Topic Publishing respectively. 

Finnian has a passion for teaching and spends most of their non-writing time working on new workshops and craft of writing presentations. They also run a full-time novel-writing program through the non-profit organization, the Golden Crown Literary Society. 

Finnian lives in British Columbia where they are currently working on a novel set in Scotland and they very much feel they must go live in a castle in Scotland for a few months as research.

Redshirts Sometimes Survive (2026)

A neglected boy clings to an action figure like a lifeline. A trans man meets his childhood hero. An introvert finally finds her voice at a protest. Queer fans, lonely children, awkward convention-goers, and disillusioned adults seek out their favourite starships and captains for solace and strength. In these interconnected flash stories, the outcasts, the rebels, the bullied, and the weird find themselves, one other, and a place to call home.

By turns moving, thoughtful, and wry, Redshirts Sometimes Survives offers connection and comfort. Being a redshirt doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Sometimes, it means you survive.

Praise for Redshirts Sometimes Survive

“I simply adore this book! It’s a celebration both of Star Trek and of love in all its many forms. This bouquet of heartfelt flash fictions captures, better than any other work I’ve ever read, why Star Trek has endured as a cultural force for sixty years now: it’s all about how, in this wide, wonderful universe of ours, there’s a place for everybody. Written with empathy and wit, Redshirts Sometimes Survive moved me to both tears and laughter. Finnian Burnett is a national treasure.”

—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of The Downloaded

 “A love letter to all of us in the Bridge Crew who found family in other Trek fans. Both funny and heartbreaking.” - Gail Anderson-Dargatz, bestselling author of The Almost Widow

Review copies can be obtained from founding editor Marion Lougheed at Off Topic Publishing 

The Price of Cookies (2024)

The Price of Cookies is a collection of 24 linked stories revolving around a series of characters all living in the same town. The short stories explore the themes of love and grief while also depicting each character's complex relationship with food. 

From the blurb:

Two brothers face their mother's impending death. A convenience store clerk balances compassion with duty. A grieving soldier receives a package of cookies meant for someone else.

In this series of connected flash fiction pieces, people navigate the trials of life with tears, arguments and, above all, love and compassion. 

Praise for The Price of Cookies

“Lives interwoven and cookies that arrive too late. This bravura collection of linked stories provides a profound lesson in empathy, of pouring yourself into someone else’s life, someone else’s pain, to see it from the inside, looking out.” 

- Will Ferguson Giller-winning author of 419 

“The Price of Cookies reveals the price of a great many things: of grief, of love and desire, of heartbreak and indifference, of small joys and great loss. Finnian Burnett’s novella … is at once tragic and funny, alive with the full spectrum of human emotion and all the many ways we might be with one another: as lovers, friends, companions, kind strangers or cruel ones, curious neighbours and hopeful parents. … As we’ve come to expect from Burnett, The Price of Cookies is both fantastic storytelling and insightful observation on the human condition–and a joy to read.” 

- Christina Myers award-winning author of The List of Last Chances and Halfway Home (forthcoming 2024) 

“The brief stories contained here fire like prisms, shining a welcome light into our collective darkness. These linked passages will tear at you, while simultaneously applying empathy and healing. Here find an artfully detailed small town and its lives effortlessly crafted to represent our world entire. We are very lucky to have Burnett.” 

- Michael Blouin 2x winner of the ReLit Award for Best Novel, Skin House

Review copies can be obtained from founding editor Marion Lougheed at Off Topic Publishing 

Finnian is available for virtual and in-person events