William Patrick "W. P." Kinsella (May 25, 1935September 16, 2016) was a Canadian
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
and short story writer, known for his novel ''
Shoeless Joe'' (1982), which was adapted into the movie ''
Field of Dreams
''Field of Dreams'' is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel ''Shoeless Joe''. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a ...
'' in 1989. His work often concerned
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
,
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
people, and
Canadian culture
The culture of Canada embodies the artistic, culinary, literary, humour, musical, political and social elements that are representative of Canadians. Throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced by European culture and traditi ...
.
Early life
William Patrick Kinsella was born in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, Alberta, the son of
Irish Canadian
ga, Gael-Cheanadaigh
, image = Irish_Canadian_population_by_province.svg
, image_caption = Irish Canadians as percent of population by province/territory
, population = 4,627,00013.4% of the Canadian population (2016)
, po ...
parents, Olive Mary (née Elliott/Elliot), a printer, and John Matthew Kinsella, a contractor. He was raised until he was 10 years old at a
homestead
Homestead may refer to:
*Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses
* Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres
*Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...
near
Darwell, Alberta
Darwell is an unincorporated community in central Alberta in Lac Ste. Anne County. It is located north of Highway 16, northwest of Edmonton.
History
Darwell is located on the old Yellowhead Trail fur trade route, which ran from Lac Ste A ...
, 60 km west of the city,
home-schooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
by his mother and taking
correspondence course
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
s. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says.
When he was ten years old, the family moved to Edmonton. He did not go to school until grade five, attended Parkdale School for junior high, and did not attend university until he was in his mid-30s. Kinsella was barely exposed to literature in school, saying in a 2010 interview, "One Shakespeare play and one J. M. Barrie play was the total literature of my high school years."
Kinsella's literary education in his formative years came from reading and by attending all the plays at high school and any theatrical productions that made it to Edmonton. He also worked in the school library his senior year.
As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the
government of Alberta
The government of Alberta (french: gouvernement de l'Alberta) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Alberta. As a constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor—is ...
and managing a
credit bureau
A credit bureau is a data collection agency that gathers account information from various creditors and provides that information to a consumer reporting agency in the United States, a credit reference agency in the United Kingdom, a credit repor ...
. In 1967, he moved to
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...
, running a pizza restaurant called Caesar's Italian Village and driving a taxi.
Although he had been writing since he was a child (winning a
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...
contest at age 14), he began taking writing courses at the
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...
in 1970, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing there in 1974. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in English at the
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...
at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
in 1978. Before becoming a professional author, he was a professor of English at the
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
.
Literary life
According to the ''
Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available ...
'', Kinsella's literary output primarily consists of two cycles of work dealing with two
fictional universes: those dealing with baseball and those depicting the
indigenous people of Canada. His first published book was ''
Dance Me Outside'' (1977), a collection of 17 short stories narrated by a young
Cree, Silas Ermineskin, who describes life on a
First Nations reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the ''Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty,
that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band."
Ind ...
in Kinsella's native Alberta.
A later collection of similar stories, ''The Fencepost Chronicles'', earned Kinsella the
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self ...
. Kinsella was criticized for writing from the point of view of Native people, appropriating their voices. He rejected the criticism on the grounds that a writer has the license to create anything he chooses and called the term "
cultural appropriation" the nonsense of
Eastern Canadian academics.
These stories use the ineptness of the
white bureaucrats on reservations as background, and Kinsella defended the stories, saying, "It's the oppressed and the oppressor that I write about. The way that oppressed people survive is by making fun of the people who oppress them. That is essentially what my Indian stories are all about."
Kinsella also wrote nearly 40 short stories and three novels about baseball. ''
Shoeless Joe'' (1982), his first novel, blends fantasy and
magic realism to tell the story of a poor Iowa farmer who, yielding to voices in his head, builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the spirits of the
1919 Chicago White Sox. The ''Iowa Baseball Confederacy'' (1986), another book blending fantasy and magical realism, recounts an epic baseball game a
minor league team played against the 1908 World Champion
Chicago Cubs. ''
Box Socials'' (1991), an evocation of life in rural Alberta during the
Great Depression and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, has a growing boy as its narrator and recounts a local batting hero's hopes of facing a visiting major league pitcher 60 miles away in Edmonton.
''Shoeless Joe'' remains Kinsella's most famous work. The book was mildly controversial for using a living person, the reclusive author
J.D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...
, as a main character. Kinsella, who had never met him, created a wholly imagined character (aside from his reclusiveness) based on ''
The Catcher in the Rye
''The Catcher in the Rye'' is an American novel by J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form from 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angs ...
'', a book that had great meaning to him as a young man. To get a feel for Salinger, he reread his body of work but created an imaginary version of the author. "I made sure to make him a nice character so that he couldn't sue me."
In an example of
metafiction, he named ''Shoeless Joes protagonist Ray Kinsella, a character from Salinger's uncollected story "
A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All
"A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, published in '' Mademoiselle'' in May 1947. The story has not been published in any anthology. It is of literary interest today largely because the character of Ray ...
". Salinger also used the surname Kinsella in ''The Catcher in the Rye'' (
Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield (identified as "Holden Morrisey Caulfield" in the story "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" , and "Holden V. Caulfield" in ''The Catcher In The Rye'') is a fictional character in the works of author J. D. Salinger. He's most famous ...
's friend Richard Kinsella, who also shared a name with Ray Kinsella's twin brother in ''Shoeless Joe'').
Known for his litigiousness, Salinger contacted Kinsella's publisher via his attorneys to express outrage over having been portrayed in ''Shoeless Joe''. Kinsella denied that Salinger, as a writer, had any real influence on his own writing, despite rumors to the contrary (some said that Kinsella had actually met Salinger).
''Shoeless Joe'' won Kinsella the prestigiou
Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowshipand the
Books in Canada First Novel Award
The Amazon.ca First Novel Award, formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and ''The Walrus'' to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident o ...
in 1982. The book garnered good reviews, sold very well, and was made into a
popular movie.
Adaptations
W. P. Kinsella's novel ''Shoeless Joe'' was made into the movie ''
Field of Dreams
''Field of Dreams'' is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel ''Shoeless Joe''. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a ...
'', starring
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...
. The movie grossed nearly $65 million in the United States. It helped establish Costner as a star and was later inducted into the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
.
Kinsella's eight books of short stories about life on reserves were the basis for the 1994 movie ''
Dance Me Outside'' and
CBC television series ''
The Rez
''The Rez'' is a Canadian drama television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1996 to 1998. Bruce McDonald and Norman Jewison were executive producers of the series, which chronicled life in an Ojibway community. The series is based o ...
'', both of which Kinsella considered to be of very poor quality.
''Fencepost Chronicles'' won the
Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1987. The short story ''The Last Pennant Before Armageddon'' was adapted for the stage by the
Live Bait Theater in Chicago in 1990.
Kinsella's short story "
Lieberman in Love" was the basis for a short film that won the
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in 1996. The Oscar came as a surprise to Kinsella, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He was not listed in the film's credits or acknowledged by director
Christine Lahti
Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film '' Swing Shift''. Her other film roles include '' ...And Justice for All'' (19 ...
in her acceptance speech. A full-page advertisement ran in ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' apologizing to Kinsella for the error.
[
]
Career interruption
In 1997 Kinsella was involved in a car accident that almost ended his writing career. He was struck by a car while walking and suffered a head injury when he hit the ground. He did not publish another novel for 14 years.
In a 1999 interview with the University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public university, public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the Unive ...
's student newspaper, Kinsella explained that he could no longer write as he had lost his ability to concentrate. The injury also robbed him of his senses of taste and smell. Kinsella said he went from being a Type A personality
Type A and Type B personality hypothesis describes two contrasting personality types. In this hypothesis, personalities that are more competitive, highly organized, ambitious, impatient, highly aware of time management, or aggressive are labeled ...
to Type B. After the accident, he didn't feel like doing the things he had done in his former routine and didn't care. He did write book reviews to keep his name before the public.
Kinsella's 14-year-long hiatus from fiction may also have had economic roots. He was cited as an archetypical victim of changes in the publishing industry during the late 1980s, which accelerated during the 1990s, that made it more difficult for well-regarded "mid-list" writers such as Kinsella to remain in print. Changes to the U.S. tax code effected by the Tax Reform Act of 1986
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 22, 1986.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was the top domestic priority of President Reagan's second term. The ...
discouraged publishers from maintaining inventories of titles in their backlists, as they were taxed on warehoused books.
This led to the thinning out of backlists and the more rapid remaindering of books. The publishing industry underwent a wave of consolidation in the 1990s, as publishers were acquired by big communications companies seeking marketing synergy. The new publishing houses poured more capital into higher-paid, best-selling writers and celebrities who could guarantee "hit" books as well as media tie-in novels. Mid-list writers with first-rate reputations but mid-range, non-spectacular sales suffered accordingly as they were ignored by the new conglomerates.
Of the state of the book industry in a 2010 interview with ''Maclean's Magazine
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
'', Kinsella said, "The publishing industry today is just—I couldn't break into the market today if I was just starting out. The publishing industry is down to a few dozen mainly adventure and romance writers. There's still some academic fiction out there, but it has an incredibly small audience. Nobody really cares about it."
Later years
On September 1, 2011, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
'
Enfield and Wizenty
a small press specializing in limited-edition hardcover books, released Kinsella's first published work in 13 years, '' Butterfly Winter''. The unpublished manuscript had won the publisher's Colophon Prize the preceding March. The release was backed up by a "modest" book tour, according to the publisher.
The story of Julio and Esteban Pimental, twins whose divine destiny for baseball begins with games of catch in the womb, marks a return to form, combining Kinsella's long-held passions of baseball and magical realism. The University of Toronto Press
The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911.
The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...
released a trade hardcover edition on October 1. A short story of Kinsella's by the same title was included in his 1988 collection ''Red Wolf, Red Wolf'', published by Totem Press (Collins Publishers).
A noted tournament Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
player, Kinsella became more involved with the game after being disillusioned by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
. He spent his final years in Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
, British Columbia, with his fourth wife, Barbara, occasionally writing articles for various newspapers.
Death
Kinsella suffered from diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
for decades and chose to die with a physician's assistance on September 16, 2016.
Honours
* In 1991, Kinsella received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Victoria.
* In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the cen ...
.
* In 2005, he was named to the Order of British Columbia
The Order of British Columbia (french: Ordre de la Colombie-Britannique) is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Instituted in 1989 by Lieutenant Governor David Lam, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier ...
.
* In 2009, he was presented the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. Vancouver Public Library
Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video game ...
and Pacific Book World News Society jointly sponsor and present the annual prize to a British Columbia author for an enduring contribution to the literary arts. "I think a lifetime achievement award sounds pretty final, but I'm always happy to see my work recognized," Kinsella said.
Works
Novels
* '' Shoeless Joe'' (1982, winner of the 1983 Books in Canada First Novel Award
The Amazon.ca First Novel Award, formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and ''The Walrus'' to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident o ...
and the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship)
* '' The Iowa Baseball Confederacy'' (1986)
* '' Box Socials'' (1991)
* ''The Winter Helen Dropped By'' (1994)
* ''If Wishes Were Horses
"If Wishes Were Horses" is the 16th episode of the first season of the American syndicated science fiction television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. The title is derived from the proverb " If wishes were horses, beggars would ride". ...
'' (1996)
* '' Magic Time'' (1998)
* '' Butterfly Winter'' (2011)
Short story collections
* '' Dance Me Outside'', (1977, short stories). Stories included: Illiana comes home – Dance me outside – Horse collars – Panache – Butterflies – The McGuffin – Caraway – Linda Star – The kid in the stove – Ups and downs – Penance – The inaugural meeting – Lark song – Feathers – Between – Longhouse – Gooch.
* ''Scars
A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a natu ...
'', (1978, short stories). Stories included: Mr. Whitey – Bones – John cat – Manitou motors – Goose moon – The four-sky thunder bundle – Scars.
* '' Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes To Iowa'', (1980, short stories). Stories included: Fiona the first – A quite incredible dance – Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to Iowa – Waiting for the call – Sister Ann of the cornfields – The Grecian urn – Mankiewitz won't be bowling Tuesday nights anymore – A picture of the virgin – The blacksmith shop caper – First names and empty pockets.
* '' Born Indian'', (1981, short stories). Some of the stories in this collection are: Born Indian, Indian Struck, The Sister, and Jokemaker. This is an incomplete list.
** This in German: ''Spaßvogel.'' transl. Klaus Schultz, in: ''Erkundungen.'' Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1986
* '' Moccasin Telegraph'', (1983, short stories). Stories included: The bottle queen – Strings – The moccasin telegraph – Green candles – Parts of the eagle – The sense she was born with – The ballad of the public trustee – Where the wild things are – Dr. Don – The college – Nests – Vows – The queen's hat – The mother's dance – Pius Blindman is coming home – Fugitives.
* '' The Thrill of the Grass'', (1984, short stories). Stories included: The Last Pennant Before Armageddon – The Baseball Spur – How I Got My Nickname – Bud and Tom – Nursie – The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record – Driving Toward the Moon – Barefoot and Pregnant in Des Moines – The Firefighter – The Battery – The Thrill of the Grass.
* '' Five Stories'', (1985, short stories). Stories included: Frank Pierce, Iowa – Oh, Marley – Diehard – A Hundred Dollars Worth of Roses – Homer.
* '' The Alligator Report'', (1985, short stories). Stories included: The post office octopus – The Vancouver Chapter of the Howard G. Scharff Memorial Society – Gabon – Syzygy – The secret – The silver porcupine – Books by the pound – The East End Umbrella Company Endowment for the Arts – A page from the marriage manual for Songhees brides – How I missed the million dollar round table – The job – The redemption center – Marco in paradise – Voyeur – King of the street – The resurrection of trout fishing in America shorty – The letter writer – Preserving fireweed for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad – Strawberry stew – Electrico utensilio – The book buyers – Doves and proverbs – I am airport – The gerbil that ate Los Angeles – The history of peanut butter – The alligator report.
* '' The Fencepost Chronicles'', (1986, short stories, winner of the 1987 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self ...
). Stories included: Truth – The truck – Beef – The managers – The practical education of Constable B.B. Bobowski – To look at the Queen – The Indian nation cultural exchange program – The performance – The bear went over the mountain – Dancing – Real indians – The fog – Indian Joe.
* '' Red Wolf, Red Wolf'', (1987, short stories). Stories included: Red Wolf, Red Wolf – Something to Think About – Lieberman in Love – Driving Patterns – Elvis Bound – Oh, Marley – Truth and History – Evangeline's Mother – Billy in Trinidad – Apartheid – Butterfly Winter – For Zoltan, Who Sings – Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck.
* '' The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt'', (1988, short stories). Stories included: Distances – Reports Concerning the Death of the Seattle Albatross Are Somewhat Exaggerated – The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt – Frank Pierce, Iowa – K Mart – The Valley of the Schmoon – Punchlines – The Eddie Scissons Syndrome – Diehard – Searching for Freddy.
* '' The Miss Hobbema Pageant'', (1989, short stories). Stories included: Being invisible – Snitches – Pizza Ria – A lighter load – The Miss Hobbema pageant – Forgiveness among animals – Tricks – Graves – Coming home to roost – The sundog society – The election – Homer – A hundred dollars worth of roses – The medicine man's daughter.
* '' The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories'', (1993, short stories). Stories included: The Baseball Wolf – The Fadeaway – The Darkness Deep Inside – Eggs – How Manny Embarquadero Overcame and Began His Climb to the Major Leagues – Searching for January – Feet of Clay – Lumpy Drobot, Designated Hitter – The Dixon Cornbelt League.
* '' Brother Frank's Gospel Hour'', (1994, short stories). Stories included: Bull – Miracle on Manitoba Street – The elevator – Ice man – Turbulence – Saskatoon search – The rain birds – George the cat – Conflicting statements – Dream catcher – Brother Frank's gospel hour.
* '' The Secret of the Northern Lights'', (1998, short stories). Stories included: Bleaching the Buffalo – The Auction – The Lightning Birds – Dangerous Consequences – Hide and Seek – The Porcupine Man – Practical People – Threes – The Legend – Fun and Games – Mother's Day – The Secret of the Northern Lights.
* '' Baseball Fantastic'', (2000, short stories). Stories included: Fred Noonan Flying Services – The Indestructible Hadrian Wilks. (This is a collection edited by Kinsella that includes stories by other authors.)
* '' Japanese Baseball and Other Stories'', (2000, short stories). Stories included: The Kowloon Cafe – Tulips – The Mansions of Federico Juarez – Japanese Baseball – The Indestructible Hadrian Wilks – The First and Last Annual Six Towns Area Old-Timers' Game – The Lime Tree – The Arbiter – Fred Noonan Flying Services – Wavelengths – Underestimating Lynn Johanssen.
* '' The Essential W. P. Kinsella'', (2015, short stories). Stories included: Truth – How I got my nickname –The night Manny Mota tied the record – First names and empty pockets – Searching for January – Lieberman in love – The Grecian urn – The fog – Beef – Distances – How Manny Embarquadero overcame and began his climb to the major leagues – The Indian Nation Cultrural Exchange Program – K Mart – The firefighter – Dr. Don – Brother Frank's Gospel Hour – The Alligator Report–with questions for discusion – King of the street – Wavelengths – Do not abandon me – Marco in Paradise – Out of the picture – The lightning birds – Punchlines – The last surviving member of the Japanese Victory Society – The job – The risk takers – The lime tree – Doves and proverbs – Waiting on Lombard Street – Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to Iowa.
Poetry
* '' Rainbow Warehouse'', (1989, poetry)
References
External links
W. P. Kinsella's
entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available f ...
An annotated bibliography of his writings on baseball
*
*
*
''Waiting on Lombard Street''
(June 15, 2008)
''Asian Girl''
(October 2, 2008); short stories in ''SmokeLong Quarterly''
* Archives of W.P. Kinsell
(W.P. Kinsella fonds, R11760)
are held at Library and Archives Canada
Interview with W.P. Kinsella
''A DISCUSSION WITH National Authors on Tour'' TV Series, Episode #136 (1995)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinsella, W. P.
1935 births
2016 deaths
2016 suicides
Canadian male novelists
Canadian people of Irish descent
Canadian Scrabble players
Canadian male short story writers
Deaths by euthanasia
Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni
Members of the Order of British Columbia
Officers of the Order of Canada
Sportspeople from Edmonton
Stephen Leacock Award winners
University of Alberta faculty
University of Calgary faculty
University of Iowa alumni
University of Victoria alumni
Writers from Edmonton
People from Lac Ste. Anne County
20th-century Canadian short story writers
21st-century Canadian short story writers
20th-century Canadian novelists
21st-century Canadian novelists
20th-century Canadian male writers
21st-century Canadian male writers
Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners