Short Fiction and Critical Contexts: A Compact Reader is a challenging, versatile, and engaging resource for the study of short fiction. This collection features a diverse group of writers from differing ethnic, cultural, and national backgrounds and highlights female and Canadian authors. Each story is introduced by a brief biography of the author, information on his or her approach to writing fiction, and information about the story itself. The second half of the text collects a variety of documents written on the topic of the short story, many by the authors featured in the first half of the text. The combination of stories and their context makes this an invaluable reader for students studying the short story at any level.

Eric Henderson wrote his doctorate on American Gothicist John Hawkes and has taught courses on Edgar Allan Poe. He teaches English literature and writing in Victoria, BC.

Eric Henderson's profile page

Geoff Hancock is a Thistledown Press author.

Geoff Hancock's profile page

"Eric Henderson and Geoff Hancock have edited a fine and useful book that presents the short story in an exemplary fashion. This is a good book and an excellent introduction to short fiction from a variety of readers. Its choice of short stories is at times usefully quirky and its setting out of issues connected with short fiction is enlightening." --David Malcolm, The Times Literary Supplement (13 August 2010)