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Change Your Life! |
Pulitzer prize: Short stories are seeing a renaissance |
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News
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April 16, 2000
NEW YORK, APR 15 (AP) - When Jhumpa Lahiri discovered this week that her first book, a collection of short stories, had won a Pulitzer Prize, she didn't believe it.
After all, her work, "Interpreter of Maladies," had been turned down by one literary agent who told her, "Call me back when you've got a novel." Then the book was accepted by a second agent only after a stern warning that she shouldn't expect much, since short story collections usually don't sell.
"I'm still in a little bit of shock. It was so unexpected. It came from nowhere and it's so big and so wonderful and so frightening," the 32-year-old Lahiri said Friday from her New York apartment - three years after the agent's warning. "I'm amazed. I feel too young."
But maybe Lahiri should not be so surprised. It turns out her book of stories, mainly about Indian immigrants in New England, gave proof to a trend some editors and publishers already have noticed: Short stories are suddenly enjoying new popularity.
Publishing insiders point to the recent runaway success of story collections such as Lorrie Moore's "Birds of America," Melissa Bank's "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing," Nathan Englander's "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" and Annie Proulx's "Close Range."
Houghton Mifflin is following up the first 50,000 copies of Lahiri's book (now on Amazon.com's top 10 list) with 75,000 more. "There's been a definite renaissance in the short stor in recent years. The increase in sales has been significant," said Lahiri's editor, Janet Silver, vice president and editor in chief of adult trade books. "And this is also a stunning example of how the literary community is embracing paperback originals." In a daring move, the publisher in 1997 began publishing many books, especially those by little-known authors, in paperback before hardcover to make it easier for readers to take a chance on new writers.
But Silver and other publishing industry insiders said many other factors are helping push short stories to the front of bookstores. There are fewer magazines where writers can publish short stories, so more stories are appearing in books first, they said. And, Silver suggested, "Maybe this is just a whole new generation of great short story writers coming of age." She said that creative writing programs are turning out lots of new writers and that since many authors write short stories before novels, more stories are appearing.
Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said the company is publishing more story collections and added: "The short story collection is enjoying a very real acceptance now both among book sellers, critics, readers and certainly the publishers that serve them."
At Knopf, executive director of publicity Paul Bogards said that sales have been picking up for story collections but that Lahiri's prize gives the genre new prestige. "It's a very positive bellwether to the publisher when a short story writer wins a Pulitzer prize," he said.
Although Lahiri said she is now writing a novel, she hopes to eventually return to her first love, short stories.
"I love stories so much and it would depress me a little bit when I would hear `Oh, stories don't sell' and `You can't make a living writing stories,"' she said. "It's nice to see writers writing what they want and to see stories being really celebrated this way. It's wonderful."
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