Works
I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like: A Memoir
The Literary History of Saskatchewan
Carpenter has gone back to his scholarly origins to organize and edit a literary history of his home province.
These essays, written by more than two dozen luminaries from across the country, make up Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of The Literary History of Saskatchewan.
The Gold
The tale of an Englishman who emigrates to Canada to prospect up north for gold in the 1930s.
The Education of Augie Merasty
Offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school.
A Hunter's Confession
Tells the story of hunting—both its history and the role it has played in David Carpenter's own life,
Trout Stream Creed
Banjo Lessons
Courting Saskatchewan
Fishing in Western Canada
Writing Home
God's Bedfellows
Jewels
Jokes for the Apocalypse
The Forest
Books
The Forest (Montreal, Harvest House, 1977, 168 pp), a novella by Georges Bugnet, translated from the original La Foret ).
Jokes for the Apocalypse (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1985, 189 pp), two linked novellas.
Jewels (Toronto, Porcupine's Quill, 1986, 157 pp), a novella.
God's Bedfellows (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1988, 216 pp), a collection of short stories.
Writing Home (Fifth House, 1994, 187 pp), a collection of literary and familiar essays.
Fishing in Western Canada (Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, 2000, 214 pp), a how-to book on catching, cooking and bragging about fish.
Courting Saskatchewan (Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, 1996, 194 pp), a collection of personal essays. Winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for nonfiction, 1997.
Banjo Lessons (Regina, Coteau Books, 1997, 281 pp), a novel. Winner of the City of Edmonton Book Prize, 1998.
Trout Stream Creed (Regina, Coteau Books, 2003, 114 pp), Carpenter's only collection of poems. Nominated for the Saskatchewan Book of the Year.
The Ketzer (Regina, Hagios Press, 2004), a novella. Winner of the Canadian National Novella Contest sponsored by Descant.
Luck (Winnipeg, Great Plains Publications, 2005, 240pp). The first instalment of Carpenter's new Bill Shmata mystery series.
Niceman Cometh (Toronto, Porcupine's Quill, 2008)
Welcome to Canada (Toronto, Porcupine's Quill, 2009). Winner of the IPPY (Independent Publishers of North America) gold medal for Canada-West – Best Regional Fiction.
A Hunter's Confession (Vancouver, Greystone Books, 2010)
The Gold (Regina, Coteau Books, 2017)
The Education of Augie Merasty (Regina, University of Regina Press, 2017)
The Literary History of Saskatchewan, Volumes 1 to 3 (Regina, Coteau Books, 2013, 2014, 2018), edited by David Carpenter.
I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like: A Memoir (Saskatoon, Thistledown Press, 2022)
Periodical Publications of Note (A Selection)
"Protection," Saturday Night (January, 1981), pp. 42-50.
"God's Bedfellows," Saturday Night (October, 1984), pp. 56-69.
"Geopiety," ("With some exceptions, Canadian literature as a whole reflects a severely qualified, lukewarm affection for the terrestrial home of its authors. As such, Canadian literature could be described as a literature of abandonment, a literature lacking in a sense of geopiety.") First published in Mosaic, 1984.
"Spectator," Saturday Night (September, 1987).
"Afterword" for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler," in McClelland & Stewart's New Canadian Library Classic series, 1989.
"What We Talk About When We Talk About Carver," in William Stull's Remembering Ray (Los Angeles, 1993); first published in Descant.
"Tyee," Western Living, August, 1992. [This article won the Western Magazine Awards first prize for 1993.]
"Nom de Plume," on Georges Bugnet, author of La Foret, in Writing Home (Calgary: Fifth House, 1994).
"Hoovering to Byzantium," on plagiarism, literary influences, Herodotus, Robertson Davies, Irish Murdoch, and a little on Carp, too. In Taking Risks, Banff Centre Publications, 1998.
"Minding Your Manners in Paradise," in Fishing in Western Canada (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2000). Reminiscences of fly-fishing on Johnson Lake in Banff.
"North Carolina I Did Go," in Explore, October, 2001.
"The Cabin That Saskatchewan Built," in Western Living, June, 2002.
"Saskatchewan," in John Conway's Saskatchewan Topographics (Edmonton, U. of A. Press, 2005).
"Augie Merasty’s School Days" in Time Magazine, September 15, 2022. by David Carpenter; edited by Maya Cheung.