Perhaps the most significant and influential figure in this century's wave of American realism, Raymond Carver (1938-1988) is credited not only with reviving the short story as an artistically legitimate form, but also with perfecting minimalist fiction. His 1981 collection, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love, remains the standard against which minimalist literature is measured, and his numerous prize-winning and frequently anthologized stories...

This study provides a critical introduction to Joyce's first two works, Dubliners and A portrait of the artist as a young man, and includes a selection of Joyce's observations about the works and excerpted commentaries from a number of critics.

Perhaps the single best-known and most highly regarded African-American writer of his time, Langston Hughes (1902-1967) has left a profound mark on American letters. Taking the environment of urban blacks, Hughes captured in verse and prose its joys and pains, bringing a new realism to the subject. His language, while unadorned in style, remained spirited and true to colloquial speech, and his work was among the first by a black man to gain a multi-racial...

Joyce Carol Oates is often called America's most prolific living writer, but it is perhaps her versatility that is most astounding. Just as she is a revered novelist, playwright, poet, and critic, the short stories gathered in her 21 published collections - from By the North Gate (1963) to Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (1994) - vary in theme and style, although all evoke the bedrock natural and social reality that has consistently informed her fiction....

This book contains an analysis of Tobias Wolff's short fiction, Wolff's discussion of method and subject matter, and a representative selection of critical responses to Wolff's literary work.

Whether "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Clytie," or "Moon Lake," a short story by Eudora Welty (b. 1909) is remarkable for its ability to convey the lyrical in everyday life, to offer haunting glimpses into the interior lives of individuals. Known for her marvelous ability to render the life and character of the deep South, Welty is particularly admired for her unfailing powers as an observer and her keen ear for the spoken word. In Eudora Welty: A Study...