Grace Paley

Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 - ) is an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work has won a number of awards.

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute and later works

Following the success of Little Disturbances of Man, Paley's publisher encouraged her to write a novel. However, after several years of tinkering with drafts, Paley abandoned the project and turned back to short fiction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Instead, with the aid of friend and neighbor Donald Barthelme, a famous author in his own right, Paley assembled a second collection of fiction in 1974, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. This collection of seventeen stories features several recurring characters from Little Disturbances of Man (most notably the narrator "Faith," but also including Johnny Raferty and his mother), while continuing Paley's exploration of racial, gender, and class issues. The long story "Faith in a Tree," positioned roughly at the center of the collection, brings together a number of characters and themes from the stories together in a Saturday afternoon at the park. Faith, the narrator, climbs a tree to get a broader perspective on both her neighbors and the "man-wide world," and after encountering several war protestors, declares a new social and political commitment. The collection's shifting narrative voice, metafictive qualities, and fragmented, incomplete plots have led most critics to classify it as a postmodernist work.

Related Topics:
Donald Barthelme - 1974 - Racial - Gender - Class - Narrative voice - Metafictive - Plot - Postmodernist

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paley continues the stories of Faith and her neighbors in the collection Later the Same Day (1985). All three volumes were gathered in her 1994 Collected Stories, nominated for a National Book Award. Paley's other honors include the Edith Wharton Award (1983), the Rea Award for the Short Story (1993) the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1993), and the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award for Literary Arts (1994). In 1980, she was elected to the National Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1989, Governor Mario Cuomo made her the first official New York State Writer.

Related Topics:
1985 - 1994 - National Book Award - Edith Wharton - 1983 - 1993 - 1980 - 1989 - Mario Cuomo

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paley currently lives and works in Thetford, Vermont.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~