The men and women in these stories, and perhaps most of all the children, make their own sense of a world where "There are forces at play so simple, natural, and accidental that nobody can figure them out and see them coming." It is a world, too, in which "there's lots more sorrow flying around people's heads than there is joy." That sorrow may be heartbreaking, occasionally it is horrific; but the reader is constantly reminded, with the quiet, clear-eyed and sometimes mischievous irony of Harriet Richards' voice, that in this world and - in the least likely places - we may entertain angels unawares.

Harriet Richards was born in Toronto, Ontario, as the fifth of seven children to a Welsh father and an American mother. Her family relocated to the prairies during her childhood. Initially pursuing a career as a visual artist, her creative focus shifted when an obstinate painting, inspired by a recurring dream, evolved into her first short story.

Richards is the author of three acclaimed works of fiction. The Lavender Child (1998) was a finalist for the Fiction Award and won the First Book Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Waiting for the Piano Tuner to Die (2003) was a finalist for Book of the Year, and The Pious Robber (2013) was also a finalist for Book of the Year and won the Fiction Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary journals in Canada and Wales, and her paintings have been featured on book covers in both countries.

An experienced mentor, Richards has guided emerging writers through the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and edited numerous works of fiction and literary essays for authors across Canada. She resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Harriet Richards' profile page

• Short-listed, Book of the Year, Saskatchewan Book Awards

"If you believe life is little more than a series of disappointments followed by death, then the ten stylistically dazzling stories in Harriet Richards's Waiting for the Piano Tuner to Die may well convince you to change your tune.A piano tuner adjusts the instrument's strings to ensure it sounds harmonious. The same might be said of Richards's talent for creating organically unified short fictions of the first order."- Judith Fitzgerald, The Globe and Mail

"While lyrical and affecting, there is nothing precious, nothing sentimental in this collection. It's edgy fiction grounded in the flat and vast Saskatchewan landscape: the environments are expansive but the stories dig deep."-Planet, the Welsh Internationalist