This volume contains a preface by Michael H. Hutchins, an introduction by Jack McDevitt, story notes, and twenty-five stories and novellas, many never before collected, all newly revised for this collection. The contents proceed in chronological order, beginning with Michael Bishop’s first professional story sale, “Piñon Fall,” and ending with “The City Quiet as Death,” a collaboration with Steven Utley.

Stories include:

• “Blooded on Arachne”
• “The Quickening”
• “The Yukio Mishima Cultural Association of Kudzu Valley, Georgia”
• “Help Me, Rondo,” an account of the last days of disfigured character actor Rondo Hatton
• “The Angst, I Kid You Not, of God,” a reflection on violence and the sense of “divine dread” that permeates the universe
• “Miriam,” a re-imagining of the central spiritual drama of Western Civilization