"God Telling a Joke and Other Stories is a collection of new stories by the author of Bix's Trumpet and Other Stories, named Book of the Year at the Saskatchewan Book Awards and a finalist for the ReLit Award in 2007.

Among the characters in the collection's 19 stories are a 99-year-old stand-up comedian wearily challenging God to deliver the punch line; a lightning strike survivor whose luck finally runs out; a Princeton-educated trapper who transforms himself into the King of the Jews; a young Second World War veteran unable to talk another vet out of suicide; a carnival sideshow ""geek"" with a glass jaw; a stroke victim who suffers a different type of heart attack; and a writer dubbed by an award jury as ""a connoisseur of longing."" The stories range from laugh-out-loud comedy to wry satire to heart-wrenching romance to sober meditations on the nature of beauty, truth, life and death. The stories show Margoshes, a master story-teller, at the top of his game. "

Dave Margoshes has published more than a dozen books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. His collection of stories, Bix's Trumpet and Other Stories, was Saskatchewan Book of the Year, won the Regina Book Award and was a finalist in the ReLit Awards in 2007. His three novels are Drowning Man, I Am Frankie Stern, and We Who Seek: A Love Story. He has published four other story collections, five volumes of poetry and several non-fiction works, including a biography of Tommy Douglas.
He has had stories and poems published in dozens of magazines and anthologies in Canada and the United States (including six times in Best Canadian Stories), had work broadcast on CBC, and given readings across the country. His awards include the Stephen Leacock Prize for Poetry. He was also a finalist for the Journey Prize.
Some of his stories and poems spring from his days as an itinerant journalist. Margoshes worked for daily newspapers in eight cities, including San Francisco, New York, Calgary and Vancouver, covering everything from politics to murder to cat shows. He's also taught journalism. He currently lives near Saskatoon.

Dave Margoshes' profile page