Friday, August 24, 2007

Grace Paley

I was sad to hear of the death of Grace Paley this week. She was a brilliant short story writer and, by all accounts, a fabulous human being. You can read accounts her life and career here and here, and a personal tribute to her by Maud Newton here. At a reading in Toronto earlier this summer, poet Matthew Zapruder spontaneously described Paley as "the Yoda of American literature." I loved that!

As a small tribute, I propose that we make Grace Paley's story "A Conversation With My Father" the focus of our September discussion at A Curious Singularity. The story is available online in text and audio versions. If you're already a member of A Curious Singularity, or if you'd like to join the group for a new round of short story discussions this fall, let me know if this idea appeals to you. As usual, the discussion would begin on the second Tuesday of the month.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea. Very good story.

diana murphy said...

I've just discovered your blog. What a wonderful reading community! I posted a brief tribute to Grace Paley on one of my blogs: dianamuse.blogspot.com
I'll come back for more info on your reading group.

Anonymous said...

Good idea. I've never read any story of hers and would be very interested to know more (why am I discovering authors when they die? :( )