Leon Rooke has published twenty-eight books, including novels, short story collections, plays, anthologies, and "oddities," and more than three hundred short stories. Recent stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Antioch Review, Daedalus, and The Republic of Letters. His plays have toured the Eastern seaboard by tall ship. Rooke's many awards include the Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction (for Shakespeare's Dog, 1985), the Periodical Association of Canada Award for the English-Language Paperback Novel of the Year (for Fat Woman, 1982), a Pushcart Prize (1988), the North Carolina Award for Literature (1990), and the Canada/Australia Literary Prize in 1981, for his body of work. This year he received the W. O. Mitchell Literary Award, for his writing and his mentoring, and the ReLit Short Fiction Award. Rooke has taught at more than a dozen Canadian and U.S. universities. In October, 2002, he represented Canada at the American Festival in Paris. He is also currently editing a special issue of The New Quarterly, with the theme, "Bad Men Who Love Jesus." Rooke lives in Winnipeg.