Alistair MacLeod is the most important chronicler in fiction of the landscape and folkways of Cape Breton to appear on the Canadian literary scene in recent years. Although his creative output is small, consisting of only two thin volumes of short stories and about a dozen poems published in various periodicals, he has earned the respect of critics and editors in both Canada and the United States, especially for his mastery of the short-story form. His work has been repeatedly selected for anthologies and annual collections of outstanding stories: he has been the recipient of several arts grants, prizes, and honorable mentions; he has been a popular visiting reader and lecturer at universities and schools across Canada. In 1984-1985 he was selected as the Canadian participant in a Canada-Scotland writers-in-residence exchange program.

This most regionally loyal of Maritime writers was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, to Alexander and...