Dickinson's first book, Fighting the Upstream, was described in The Globe & Mail as 'truly memorable fiction'. With Blue Husbands, Dickinson returns with stories wilder and even funnier.

Although there is always an underlying melancholy in his writing which gives depth and bite to his humour, nearly all these stories resolve themselves into celebration. Sad, seedy, mad or battered as some of his characters are, Dickinson invests them all with dignity.

Don Dickinson is the author of two short story collections, Fighting the Upstream (Oberon Press) and Blue Husbands (Porcupine’s Quill; nominated for the Governor General’s Award; winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize); and two novels, The Crew (Coteau Books; nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award) and Robbiestime (Harper-Collins). His stories have appeared in anthologies both in Canada and abroad.

For seven years he travelled widely, working jobs as varied as labourer, fitness instructor, and shepherd. He later taught high school and university English courses for over twenty years. Married with three children, he lives with his wife in Lillooet, BC.

Don Dickinson's profile page

• Winner, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
• Short-listed, Governor General's Award

'There's a lot of wonderful moping being done in Don Dickinson's d?but, Blue Husbands. All but two of the collection's nine stories concern lonely men groping about for lost and distanced loves. Stunned by senseless deaths and divorces, Dickinson's husbands grieve in a strange and endearing assortment of forms: one swallows a chain, another talks to a crab, another attempts 300,000 push-ups on the front lawn of his ex-wife. What makes these stories brilliant -- and they are -- is that Dickinson crafts such daring, funny tales out of the tortured, melancholy lives of solitary men.'

Quill & Quire