The previously announced March 2015 collection The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella has been retitled as the far more appropriate The Essential W. P. Kinsella.

Coming March 17, 2015:

The Essential W. P. Kinsella

by W. P. Kinsella

Cover art by Thomas Canty.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story.

W. P. Kinsella, the author of Shoeless Joe (the basis for the cult classic film Field of Dreams), is one of the finest storytellers in baseball’s history. He is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer whose satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors.

This retrospective collection includes four stories that were previously uncollected, a Shoeless Joe piece, and many stories that are out of print. In addition to many of his baseball tales are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger. Alongside the “real” story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.

Representing his finest work, The Essential W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to a legendary raconteur.

Table of Contents

• The Alligator Report—with Questions for Discussion
• Beef
• Brother Frank’s Gospel Hour
• Distances
• Do Not Abandon Me
• Doves and Proverbs
• The Firefighter
• First Names and Empty Pockets
• The Fog
• The Grecian Urn
• How I Got My Nickname
• How Manny Embarquadero Overcame and Began His Climb to the Major Leagues
• Indian Nation Cultural Exchange Program
• The Job
• Kmart
• King of the Street
• Last Surviving Member of the Japanese Victory Society
• Lieberman in Love
• The Lightning Birds
• The Line Tree
• Marco in Paradise
• The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record
• Out of the Picture
• Punchlines
• Risk Takers
• Searching for January
• Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa
• Truth
• Waiting on Lombard Street
• Wavelengths