This volume represents the first full-scale appreciation of Clark Blaise's writing in more than 25 years ? and the first comprehensive study of his now more than 20 books. Included are previously published essays by, among others, Robert Lecker, Alexander MacLeod, Catherine Sheldrick Ross, and the volume's editor, J.R. (Tim) Struthers, along with new essays by William Butt, Stephen Henighan, W.H. New, and Sandra Sabatini, as well as a brand-new autobiographical essay by Blaise himself. As important as these essays are for their insights into Blaise's works, they offer something more: a rich range of examples showing us how we, as readers and as writers, can come to understand much more intricately and to practise much more powerfully the art of the essay ourselves.