Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis, acclaimed fiction writer and translator, is famous in literary circles for her extremely brief and brilliantly inventive short stories. In fall 2003 she received one of 25 MacArthur Foundation Genius awards. In granting the award the MacArthur Foundation praised Daviss work for showing how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a readers interest. . . . Davis grants readers a glimpse of lifes previously invisible details, revealing new sources of philosophical insights and beauty.

Daviss most recent collection, Varieties of Disturbance (May 2007), was featured on the front cover of the Los Angeles Times Book Review and garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Her Samuel Johnson Is Indignant (2001) was praised by Elle magazine for its Highly intelligent, wildly entertaining stories, bound by visionary, philosophical, comic prosepart Gertrude Stein, part Simone Weil, and pure Lydia Davis.

Davis is also a celebrated translator of French literature into English. The French government named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her fiction and her distinguished translations of works by Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Jean Jouve, Michel Butor and others.

Davis recently published a new translation (the first in more than 80 years) of Marcel Prousts masterpiece, Swann's Way (2003), the first volume of Prousts In Search of Lost Time. A story of childhood and sexual jealousy set in fin de siecle France, Swann's Way is widely regarded as one of the most important literary works of the 20th century.

The Sunday Telegraph (London) called the new translation "A triumph [that] will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world." Writing for the Irish Times, Frank Wynne said, "What soars in this new version is the simplicity of language and fidelity to the cambers of Prousts prose Davis translation is magnificent, precise."

Daviss previous works include Almost No Memory (stories, 1997), The End of the Story (novel, 1995), Break It Down (stories, 1986), Story and Other Stories (1983), and The Thirteenth Woman (stories, 1976).

Davis first received serious critical attention for her collection of stories, Break It Down, which was selected as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. The books positive critical reception helped Davis win a prestigious Whiting Writers Award in 1988.