Twenty Under Thirty

New to this Scribner Paperback Fiction edition is a preface by editor Debra Spark, providing a look back at her experience compiling this groundbreaking collection.

This collection introduced the voices of a new generation of writers whom Bob Shacochis called "the master storytellers of the 21st century." 20 Under 30 stands as a record of their early efforts, a vital document that reveals why they would soon ascend to the highest ranks in contemporary fiction writing.

In the introduction, Spark notes that it is problematic to find that so many of the young writers included here have been associated with university-sponsored or other writing programs. She understates the extent of the drawback, thoughmany of these stories, alternating between dubious innovation and dull earnestness, seem to have been written to fulfill an instructor's bland maxim, e.g. "make it new" or "keep it true." Among the few standouts are one of David Leavitt's popular if glib stories from Family Dancing, Dean Albarelli's judicious tale of a young Irish terrorist reconsidering his political commitments and Michelle Herman's fine "Auslander," about a translator's divided loyalty between the work and the writera story that recalls Cynthia Ozick.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.