In a splendid display of show-and-tell, 26 writers tell a story and lift the curtain to reveal how they did it.
This big, beautiful anthology of short fiction is for readers, writers, and anyone curious about the mysterious processes of literary minds. All contributors have been recent faculty members of the prestigious Warren Wilson Low Residency Program, including such literary favorites as Margot Livesey, Charles Baxter, Robert Boswell, Jim Shepard, Antonya Nelson, David Shields, and the editors themselves.
Each writer was asked to submit an original story, accompanied by an essay describing the challenges of the story and how they were met. Since writers resist herding, the editors were happily surprised by the wide range of essays--"fiction writers, when given the space, think about their work very differently." We learn about the genesis of a story, how story evolves, what was eventually relinquished and why, and how a story--surprisingly--might "insist" on changing.
Arranged alphabetically by author, and beginning with Richard Russo's cogent introduction, this volume is a treasure throughout.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
intriguing background material:
The first story in this collection, "Strike Anywhere" by Antonia Nelson, left me breathless at the thought of a little boy eating matches. Even when the scene moved into a bar where a pregnant woman was drinking and smoking, and I wanted to forcibly push her out of the bar, even then I could not stop thinking about the little boy sitting in the pickup out front eating matches while his father drank in the bar. The irony of the story is that the father is angrily indignant about the way the strange woman is... more info
Good, but in need of pruning:
It is an interesting idea: a collection of stories, each followed by an essay by the author on that story. And there are several places in this collection where it works brilliantly. But like the other Warren Wilson book, "Bringing the Devil to his Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life," this collection could benefit from some pruning. I would of course begin my cutting at the introduction by Richard Russo. But that's just my personal beef. Many of the stories in the collection lack... more info
Drop Everything & read now. You don't have to be a writer to read!:
The book's premise & organization is clear & straightforward. None of the writers blather on about themselves; the pacing of each essay is perfect & importantly, no writer in the book has a bloated sense of self-importance. There is a humility and a thoughtfulness in process found here. Perhaps most significantly, the stories are blisteringly good!
Best Short Story Anthology Ever:
The Story Behind the Story is the first collection of short stories I greeted with a whoop of joy.
The more you enjoy reading a particular short story, the more you want to know about the writer. How different is the writer from me? you wonder. How did the writer actually write the story?
Answers are hard to come by. If you're lucky, you'll find a measly author min-bio buried in the small print. Anthologies are the worst: one good story after another raises your curiosity, but lack of additional... more info
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