Author Description

More Time Studies The Contemporary Short Story And Focuses On Four Recent Collections: Alice Munro's Dear Life (2012); Andre Dubus's Dancing After Hours (1996); Joy Williams's The Visiting Privilege (2015); And Lydia Davis's Can't And Won't (2014). Each Publication Has Appeared Near The Conclusion Of A Career Devoted All But Exclusively To Short Stories, With Each Defining A 'late Style' Honed Over A Lifetime. As Well, Each Diverges From Others In Ways That Have Profoundly Shaped Our Generic Conceptions, And Collectively They Represent The Four Most Innovative Practitioners Of The Past Half-century (with The Arguable Exception Of Raymond Carver). Yet In An Era When Writing Programs, The New Yorker, And Distinguished Journals All Promulgate The Short Story, It Remains Relatively Under-examined As A Major Literary Form. We Continue To Argue About What A Story Inherently Is, Ignoring How Differences Among Practitioners Enliven The Field. Dubus, Munro, Williams, And Davis Each Defy Critical Efforts To Identify The Story Form's Presumed Constitution, Marked By A Supposedly Special Shape Or Requisite Length Or Distinct Narrative Trajectory. And The Very Contrast Among Their Efforts Reveals The Expansiveness Of The Genre, Though Few Have Taken Such A Cross-glancing Interpretive Approach. This Volume Opens Up Discussion, Shifting From Close Analysis Into Larger Speculation About Possibilities Established By The Most Innovative Writers In Their Later Work.