The Short Story & All Things Carver

I am a new-comer to the American short story writer and poet, Raymond Carver, but from the moment I read "Cathedral", I have been hooked. I was drawn to him first by what he says in "Principles of a Story", his 1989 essay, which talks about the ease with which he approached short story writing ("Get in, get out"). Ease in the sense that he had to learn to demystify the writing process and aim for specificity, realism, clarity, and the sheer joy of the writing process (even where it may seem exhausting and time-consuming, the writer was trying to make an honest effort of producing a story, not because it was a special, world-changing story, but a creation, free of gimmicks and pretentiousness).

After I finished reading this short essay and sharing it to a writer's workshop last April, I felt liberated, I loosened up in my approach to writing and lost some of the seriousness and faithful belief in the mystery of writing that had for years pursued me. When it comes to writing, Carver seems to say, just write. And revise. Many times, until the story is pulled out of your control, and revise it again if another opportunity comes.

Carver is considered one of the most influencial American short fiction writers, and for me, his name has come up when I least expected. Like when I was helping with the compiling and editing of the Sacramento Poetry Center publication, Keepers of the Flame. I discovered (perhaps in the way David Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls, or how Columbus discovered America) that the Poetry Center had worked with Raymond Carver in one or two occasions. He was a Northern California guy. It was fascinating to discover that he favored poetry and the short stories, and he explained in his essay that this was because of the no-BS conciseness the genres afforded him. I was prompted to seek more of his work, and I have since acquired two collections of his short stories, one of which is Cathedral. And he keeps appearing in much of what I read these days.

On this blog we have already declared 2009 the short story year. It is thus fitting that there is renewed interest in everything Carver. The Library of America has published his collected stories in a volume of 1019 pages, and Carol Sklenicka has just published RAYMOND CARVER: A Writer’s Life. Two books worth checking out.

Some of the essays being written about Carver keep referring to his editor Gordon Lish, whom some critics believe did excessive editing of Carver's stories, leading to the question: "How far can editor go in making changes to a writer's work?" It's a controversy I know little about, but the questions it raises are very important to every writer and editor.

For a taste of what's being written about Raymond Carver, see this New York Times review of his biography.