Abbreviations Foreword by Margaret Atwood--"'A Soap Bubble Hovering Over the Void': A Tribute to Carol Shields" Preface Introduction: "The Canadian Shields, or How an American Writer Became an Award-winning Canadian Author" PART I: CAROL SHIELDS'S PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED STORIES AND ESSAYS Stories Protein Dust A Message from Beyond The Golden Boy, or Some Things Only Happen Once Essays Gifts Christmas Interruptus Coming to Canada Did anything happen to you in the fifties? Writers Are Readers First Books that Meant The Reader-Writer Arc The Writer's Second Self The Writing Life Making Words / Finding Stories My Back Pages Women's Voices in Literature Women and The Short Story The Feminine Line The New Canadian Fiction Crossing Over Writers' Gender Swapping The Unity of Our Country Address to University of Winnipeg Graduands Concordia University Convocation Address 1998 University Leadership and Social Change Idealism and Pragmatism in Two Novels of Sara Jeannette Duncan The Two Susanna Moodies The Healing Journey PART II: CAROL SHIELDS'S PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BUT UNCOLLECTED ESSAYS I've Always Meant to Tell You: A Letter to My Mother At Home in Winnipeg Living at Home Sunday Dinner, Sunday Supper My Favorite Place--At Home in Deepest France Travelwarp Legacy of Stone Others What's in a Picture Rare Petals A Purse of One's Own Heidi's Conundrum Parties Real and Otherwise The Best Teacher I Ever Had The Visual Arts A Delicate Balancing Act Divorce Introduction to Duet Carol Shields's Booker Prize Report Foreword to The Stone Diaries Afterword to Life in the Clearings Introduction to Mansfield Park Afterword to Dropped Threads I Afterword to Dropped Threads II Conclusion Afterword by Lorna Crozier--"Carol's Haunting Voice" Notes Works Cited Index.