Reena and Other Stories: Including the Novella "Merle" »

Paule Marshall grew up in Brooklyn and barbados. She has published four novels and a book of short stories in career dating back to Random House's publication of BROWN GIRL in 1959. She has received the John Dos Passos Award for Literature and an American Book Award, and was an honoree of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Marshall teaches creative writing at New York University.

   This collection of Paule Marshall's short works illustrates the growth of a remarkable writer. For the first time these stories, long out of print or difficult to obtain, appear together in a single volume. Introducing the volume is Marshall's much acclaimed autobiographical essay, "From the Poets in the Kitchen" from the New York Times Book Review's series called "The Making of a Writer." This collection included newly written autobiographical headnotes to each story and "Merle," a novella excerpted from Marshall's 1969 novel, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, and extensively reshaped and rewritten for this collection. It stands as an independent story about one of the most memorable women in contemporary fiction.