Miss Muriel & Other Stories: Black Women Writers Series - Softcover

Petry, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807083119 ISBN 13: 9780807083116

Publisher: Beacon Press, 1989

Synopsis

From the author of the best-selling novel The Street comes a stunning collection of stories that captures a remarkably diverse panorama of African-American experience in the 1950s and 1960s--stories of "a small town pharmacist's family, a New York nightclub drummer, a high school English teacher, a factory worker, a junk dealer, [and] a charmingly perceptive 12-year-old" (Christian Science Monitor). Set mainly along the East Coast, these realistic tales are, as one reviewer said, "a rare pleasure" (Belles Lettres) to read, as powerful today as they were when they were first published in 1971.

About this title

Review

"But Petry's stories, like her novels, refuse to settle for easy truths. In Miss Muriel, individuals, their relationships with others, and their communities are clearly formed by human bias, not just harmed by it."--Hilary Holladay, author of Tipton

Ann Petry is an important, if underappreciated, American writer. The first to provide emotionally complex portraits of urban working-class African Americans, particularly women, Petry wrote fiction that is original, compelling, and timeless. Her political and aesthetic sensibilities continue to inform and influence new generations of writers, critics, and literary theorists. --Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University"

"Ann Petry is an important, if underappreciated, American writer. The first to provide emotionally complex portraits of urban working-class African Americans, particularly women, Petry wrote fiction that is original, compelling, and timeless. Her political and aesthetic sensibilities continue to inform and influence new generations of writers, critics, and literary theorists."--Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University

"Miss Muriel and Other Stories is timeless. Petry's sense of place, subtly drawn characters, and exploration of complex ethical questions, especially when race and gender collide, make these classic examples of the American short story."--Barbara Smith, author of The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom

"Miss Muriel and Other Stories adds more tenor to questions that surely have haunted fans of [Petry's] novels . . . Black women's voices matter, yet they are often silenced, ignored, or relegated to the margins of popular discourse . . . Some eight decades after Ann Petry penned the first words that would make their way into Miss Muriel, let us give her the audience she deserves." --Jamilah Lemieux, from the foreword

"But Petry's stories, like her novels, refuse to settle for easy truths. In Miss Muriel, individuals, their relationships with others, and their communities are clearly formed by human bias, not just harmed by it." --Hilary Holladay, author of Tipton

About the Author

ANN PETRY (1908-1997) was a reporter, pharmacist, social worker, and community activist. She illuminated the range of black and white experience in her novels, short stories, and other writing. Her book The Street was the first novel by an African American woman to sell more than a million copies.JAMILAH LEMIEUX is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared via a host of print and digital properties, including Mic, Ebony, The Nation, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Guardian, Gawker, and her now-defunct award-winning blog, The Beautiful Struggler.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0807083119
• ISBN 13: 9780807083116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 305