Mason Mantla’s short story, titled Reverse Don’t Work, is set to be featured in an upcoming issue of The Malahat Review, a leading Canadian literary journal.
“It’s about a dad and, quite literally, a car that can’t reverse,” Mantla told Cabin Radio.
“It’s about inheritance of generational trauma and addiction, sobriety and what it means to be a father.”
Mantla, who is Tłı̨chǫ and from Behchokọ̀, said the story, which is around 970 words, was inspired by his personal history.
“Last year, I was kind-of in a rut mentally. A lot of things in my life weren’t going well and I started going to therapy, and I had to re-examine my relationship with substances and what kind of father I wanted to be,” he shared.
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“I started writing again. I used to write as a kid and a lot of things I do professionally, it’s about stories, about writing, and it actually helped. It was a cathartic experience getting all that out on the page.”
Mantla hopes his story will resonate with people struggling with mental illness or sobriety, or who have inherited something from their parents.
“It’s not the end-all be-all, there’s a hole at the end of the tunnel, there is a way forward,” he said. “The whole metaphor of the car not reversing – you know you can’t backtrack, you can’t fix things, you can only go forward.”
‘A pretty special issue’
Mantla said after being encouraged to share the story, he submitted it to The Malahat Review and it was accepted for publishing.
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Reverse Don’t Work will be featured in the 2025 winter edition of the journal, titled Inhale/Exhale, which is set to be released in February 2026.
The special issue is dedicated to contemporary Indigenous storytelling with guest editor Richard Van Camp, a well-known Tłı̨chǫ author from Fort Smith.
“I think that it’s a pretty special issue. Just me being in there is pretty surprising,” Mantla said.
“You know, I’m just a kid from Behchokọ̀. I’ve never been formally trained in writing or journalism or anything. It’s just something I did as a hobby, something that was just part of what I do, and being nationally published in a pretty big literary magazine feels pretty special.”
‘Keep putting yourself out there’
Mantla encouraged other people interested in writing to “just keep trying and just keep putting yourself out there.”
“There are a lot of guardrails in place that seem prohibitive to young, Indigenous kids. They feel like they’re not invited into these spaces, they feel like they’re not capable, and all of that’s just internal,” he said.
“I think that if you just put your name out there, the worst thing that somebody could say is no. I think that you don’t have to be scared to put your name out there and there is an audience of people who want to see you succeed.”
Mantla said he plans to continue writing, particularly short stories about what it means to be Indigenous and from the North, and possibly author a book in the future.
The Malahat Review can be purchased online or at several book stores in southern Canada and the Yukon.
