First published in 1972, Columbus and the Fat Lady introduced readers to Governor General’s Literary Award–winning author Matt Cohen’s skewed and hilarious worldview. By turns funny, surreal, wistful, savagely satirical, and brilliantly inventive, the stories in this collection intrigue and surprise the reader with their unexpected language and plots. He conjures up images that are both absurd and perceptive. From Sir Galahad as a schoolteacher to Christopher Columbus as a carnival attraction, these stories feature the improbable with strength and virtuosity. This collection is a foray into the jungles of life on this planet and the tangled but fascinating interiors of the human head.

THE FAT LADY SINGS is a darkly comedic suspense thriller. Present day, but with a tip of the fedora to the classic lone wolf detective. the story has won multiple awards in its screenplay version. Byroan inherited from his mentor the third largest P.I. agency in a city only big enough for two. His sports gambling habit forces him to take on an impossible case: Find an online plumbing school dropout, no photo, name, phone number, or address, whose only contact with her was by e-mail over a decade ago.

In 2013, the Nobel Prize for Literature was for the first time awarded to a short story writer, and to a Canadian, Alice Munro. The award focused international attention on a genre that had long been thriving in Canada, particularly since the 1960s. This book traces the development and highlights of the English-language Canadian short story from the late 19th century up to the present. The history as well as the theoretical approaches to the genre are covered, with in-depth examination of exemplary stories by prominent writers such as Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro.

This is the story of my journey from a university psychology department to public mental health and private practice, and on to being a psychologist in "Indian land." It includes, of course, the many interesting people, novel experiences, and challenging ideas I encountered along the way. It is a story of expanding spiritual awareness and growth as a human being and the part played in that by the Chippewa/Ojibwa Indians, whose own practice of faith clearly embodies Jesus' teachings on how to live with reverence, gratitude, humility, and grace. The discovery of their faith was an immense surprise and an unexpected joy. Eventually I was called in dreams to Sundance in Canada, a calling that also included dancing in other ceremonies which, like the Sundance, required four days of fasting and prayer. I attempt to convey to the reader some of the learning and growth that are inevitable when one dances in a sacred arbor filled with kind souls and the Creator's unconditional love--and yet I know full well that words merely hint at what can be learned only through experience. When I answered the call to Sundance, who could have known that as a dancer, helper, and eventual leader I would spend the next eighteen years of my life in those sacred arbors? I was fifty-two when I first danced and a couple of weeks shy of seventy when last I dragged the buffalo skulls. My dear wife pursued her own calling to teach children, and wound up teaching many years in a nearby Indian school. She made this journey ours by her loving constancy, faith, courage, and support. She was the first and best of the joy-filled surprises the Creator had for me when He moved me out of the university world.

The most precious treasure of this collection is that it gives us the rich back-story and diverse range of influences on Margaret Atwood's work. From the aunts who encouraged her nascent writing career to the influence of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four on The Handmaid's Tale, we trace the movement of Atwood's fertile and curious mind in action over the years.Atwood's controversial political pieces, Napoleon's Two Biggest Mistakes and Letter to America -- both not-so-veiled warnings about the repercussions of the war in Iraq -- also appear, alongside pieces that exhibit her active concern for the environment, the North, and the future of the human race. Atwood also writes about her peers: John Updike, Marina Warner, Italo Calvino, Marian Engel, Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mordecai Richler, Elmore Leonard, and Ursula Le Guin.This is a landmark volume from a major writer whose worldwide readership is in the millions, and whose work has influenced and entertained generations. Moving Targets is the companion volume to Second Words.

(Amadeus). Think opera's just about starving artists, vengeful goddesses, randy noblemen, and adulterous lovers? Think again. In So When Does the Fat Lady Sing? , Michael Walsh, the former music critic for Time magazine, takes audiences on a wise and witty dash through 400 years of operatic history and culture. More a freewheeling dialogue between author and reader than a traditional quiz book, So When Does the Fat Lady Sing? poses irreverent and impertinent questions designed not so much to test knowledge as to inspire and entertain both expert and novice alike. Curtain up!