Harriette Simpson Arnow Book

GRACE PALEY’S LIFE STORIES

by Judith Arcana

"Grace Paley's Life Stories," the biography of renowned author and activist Grace Paley, explores the roots of her political consciousness and traces her work as an activist as it grew into her work as a storyteller. Grace teaches us what it takes and how to do it: Calling for liberation, peace and justice, crying out to save the burning earth, demanding healthcare for all and the right of women to determine the course of their lives. Her struggle through the decades — in the streets and in her stories — is the same as our struggle, right now.

Though Grace died in 2007, her work as an activist and writer lives. "Grace Paley’s Life Stories" is a tool for understanding the past, and for using the past to create the future we need. Grace’s commitment to hope, and the work necessary to sustain it, continues to inspire activists, writers — and everybody else.



312 pages, paperback
5.25" x 8", with dustjacket

“If you want to know how Grace Paley came to be a tireless political activist and renowned writer — and how she united these callings so completely — read Grace Paley’s Life Stories. This is a book unlike any other I know — not a big brick of biography, nor an opaque literary study. The words in the title, Life Stories, are exactly right: This book is the story of the life from which Grace Paley made her extraordinary stories.”
— Carol Sklenicka, author of "Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life" and "Much Love: The Life and Work of Alice Adams"

“We must keep Grace Paley’s Life Stories always available. Grace is still an exemplar to writers who would tell good stories, and to citizens who would save the world.” —Maxine Hong Kingston