In A Report on the Afterlife of Culture, one of Canada's most provocative writers ranges across continents, centuries and linguistic traditions to examine how literary culture and our perception of history are changing as the world grows smaller. Weaving together daring literary criticism with front-line reporting on events such as the end of the Cold War in Poland, the plight of indigenous cultures in Mexico and Guatemala and African reactions to the G8 Summit, Henighan evokes a world where astonishing cultural riches flourish under siege from all-consuming commercialized uniformity. Whether illustrating in irreverent detail the reasons for the popularity of Ian McEwan's Atonement, providing authoritative accounts of the work of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami or José Saramago, writing with fresh insight on Cuban literary politics or the practice of literary translation, or intervening with forceful clarity in debates about the Giller Prize, book reviewing or Margaret Atwood's LongPen book-signing technology, Henighan is equally engaged with the word and the world. The work of a writer whose vision is simultaneously local and global, A Report on the Afterlife of Culture is entertaining and essential reading.

Stephen Henighan is the author of four books of fiction, including the novel The Places Where Names Vanish (Thistledown 1998) and the short story collection North of Tourism (Cormorant 1999), which was selected as a `What's New What's Hot` title by chapters.indigo.ca. His short fiction has been published in more than thirty journals and anthologies in Canada, Great Britain and the United States, and has been taught in university courses in Canada, the U.S. and France.

Henighan's literary journalism has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, the Globe and Mail, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and many other publications. He has published scholarly articles on literature in major international journals such as The Modern Language Review, Comparative Literature Studies and the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.

Lecturer in Spanish at University College, Oxford and Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, Stephen Henighan has also taught English as a Second Language in Colombia and Moldova, and Creative Writing at Concordia University, the Maritime Writers` Workshop and the University of Guelph. He currently teaches Spanish-American literature and culture in the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Guelph.

Stephen Henighan's profile page