Lydia Davis

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Lydia Davis (born 1947) is a contemporary American author and translator of French. She is the daughter of Robert Gorham Davis and Hope Hale Davis. From 1974 to 1978 Davis was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son.

She has published six collections of short stories, including The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976) and Break It Down (1986). Her most recent collection is Samuel Johnson is Indignant, published by McSweeney's in 2002. Her stories are acclaimed for their brevity and humour. Many are only one or two sentences. In fact some of her stories are considered poetry or somewhere between philosophy, poetry and short story.

Davis has also translated Proust, Blanchot, Foucault, Michel Leiris, and other French writers.

[edit] Works

• The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976)
• Sketches for a Life of Wassilly (1981)
• Story and Other Stories (1983)
• Break It Down (1986)
• The End of the Story (novel) (1995)
• Almost No Memory (1997)
• Samuel Johnson is Indignant (2002)

[edit] External links

• Essays, Stories, Interviews and readings
• Samuel Johnson is indignant - TMO meets Lydia Davis
• Interview @ BOMB
• Audio-files @ PENNsound listen to Lydia Davis read from her work