Try our Advanced SearchShort stories by Grace Paley
Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Collected Stories in 1994.[1][2] Her stories hone in on the everyday conflicts and heartbreaks of city life, heavily informed by her childhood in the Bronx.[3] Beyond her work as an author and university professor, Paley was a feminist and anti-war activist, describing herself as a "somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."[1]
Listing 3 stories.
In the 1980s, when one of the women in a New York female friend group is on the brink of death, her friends reflect on their children, particularly the ones who are gone, and their attachments to each other.
As she walks alongside the Hudson River with her friend, a woman excitedly explains her intricate vision of what would give her happiness.
The owner of a pharmacy in New York is prejudiced towards Black people, going out of his way to prevent them from feeling welcome in the community. He is forced to reckon with his racism when his hospitalized daughter gives birth to a Black baby, which he goes on to raise as his own.