Where I'm Calling From, published in 1988, is the collection of short stories in which "Errand" appears. Carver died the year it was published.

Carver was inspired to write "Errand" after reading the biography Chekhov, by Henri Troyat, published in 1986.

Louis Simpson's 1996 Collected Poems includes many pieces based on, and inspired by, Chekhov's life and writing.

Carver was a poet as well as a fiction writer. In 1989, his collection of poems A New Path to the Waterfall was published posthumously.