During the 1970s William Dempsey Valgardson established himself as one of Canada's foremost writers of short fiction. His forceful presentation of lives shaped by isolation and the brutal effects of a northern environment, his careful control of narrative method, and his respect for his audience have won him both a wide readership and high praise from critics and reviewers.

Valgardson was born to Dempsey Alfred Herbert and Rachel Smith Valgardson in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was raised in Gimli, a fishing village on Lake Winnipeg in the northern part of the province. Gimli was formerly known as Nya Island, or New Iceland, and Valgardson's father was of Icelandic descent. Both the community and his ancestry have strongly influenced Valgardson's writing, providing him not only with settings and themes but also with a vision of human life. "Is it any wonder," he has asked, in "Personal Gods" (Essays on Canadian...