A dwarf walks into a bar. So begins an essay originally published in The Hastings Center’s Bioethics Forum that will be included in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 3. 

The essay is about Danny Black, a dwarf who has generated controversy by running a company that hires out dwarfs for entertainment. “Turns out Danny is the kind of dwarf that gets paid to walk into a bar—as cupid on Valentine’s Day, as Santa’s elf just before Christmas, as a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day,” writes Alice Dreger in the essay, "Lavish Dwarf Entertainment." Dreger, a frequent contributor to Bioethics Forum, is a professor in the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program at Northwestern University and a Guggenheim Scholar.

With humor and extensive reporting, Dreger explores the ethics of Black’s business. “`Lavish Dwarf Entertainment’ is a brilliant, moving, and provocative piece, and we’re thrilled to have brought it to wider attention through the Forum,” says Greg Kaebnick, editor of Bioethics Forum.

Dreger’s essay was one of 16 chosen from 250 submissions to the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, a publishing and educational organization. The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 3, will be published by W.W. Norton in July 2009.