The best of today's Canadian short fiction is showcased in this third volume of the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Anthology Series, which features the 12 stories short-listed—among them the three winners—for the 2013 $15,000 Vanderbilt/Exile Short Fiction Competition. The book contains contemporary writing that reflects a diversity in emerging and established Canadian writers, including Austin Clarke, Leon Rooke, Priscilla Uppal, Greg Hollingshead, Sang Kim, Matthew R. Loney, Helen Marshall, George McWhirter, Rob Peters, David Somers, Yakos Spiliotopoulos and Liz Windhorst Harmer. The collection contains the winners, including Kim's "When John Lennon Died," a story about loss, homesickness, and nostalgia; Uppal's "Cover Before Striking," a disturbing, poetic tale sure to make readers' hearts race; and Clarke's "They Never Told Me," a haunting, unforgettable story that reaches the deepest places in the mind and heart. Following the stories are biographies of each contributor.