A specialist in British literature of the nineteenth century, MacLeod taught English for three years at the University of Indiana before accepting a post in 1969 at the University of Windsor where he remains a professor of English and Creative Writing to this day. What is most amazing about the career of Alistair MacLeod is that his great critical reputation stems from a mere 14 short stories, collected in *The Lost Salt Gift of Blood* (1976) and A*s Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories* (1986). In 1999, he published his first novel, *No Great Mischief*, which follows the lives of several generations of a family that emigrates from Scotland to Cape Breton. Written over the course of 13 years, *No Great Mischief* was published to great critical acclaim and is already in the process of being translated into a number of different languages. Nominated for all of Canada's major literary awards, the novel was awarded the Trillium Prize. The success of *No Great Mischief* was followed in 2000 by *Island*.