Winner of the 1997 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Fado and Other Stories is filled with narrative and character grounded in the meaning and value the earth gives to human existence. Katherine Vaz is never afraid to confront her subject's ambiguities and her characters' conflicts - the simultaneous joy and sorrow of some of life's discoveries, the pain sometimes hidden within passion and pleasure.

Katherine Vaz is author of the critically acclaimed novel Saudade and her second novel, Mariana, has been published in six different languages. She lives in her native California where she is associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis.