Lydia Davis’s Followers (1,407)

Lydia Davis

Born

in Northampton (Massachusetts), The United States

July 15, 1947

Website

http://us.macmillan.com/author/lydiadavis

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

edit data

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 Davis’s work for showing “how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a reader’s interest. . . . Davis grants readers a glimpse of life’s previously invisible details, revealing new sources of philosophical insights and beauty.” In 2013 She was the winner of the Man Booker International prize.

Davis’s recent collection, “Varieties of Disturbance” (May 2007), was featured on the front cover of the “Los Angeles Times Bo 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 Davis’s work for showing “how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a reader’s interest. . . . Davis grants readers a glimpse of life’s previously invisible details, revealing new sources of philosophical insights and beauty.” In 2013 She was the winner of the Man Booker International prize.

Davis’s 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 prose—part 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 Proust’s masterpiece, “Swann’s Way” (2003), the first volume of Proust’s “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 Proust’s prose… Davis’ translation is magnificent, precise.”

Davis’s 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).

Grace Paley wrote of “Almost No Memory” that Lydia Davis is the kind of writer who “makes you say, ‘Oh, at last!’—brains, language, energy, a playfulness with form, and what appears to be a generous nature.” The collection was chosen as one of the “25 Favorite Books of 1997” by the “Voice Literary Supplement” and one of the “100 Best Books of 1997” by the “Los Angeles Times.”

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 book’s positive critical reception helped Davis win a prestigious Whiting Writer’s Award in 1988.

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, Daniel Auster. Davis is currently married to painter Alan Cote, with whom she has a son, Theo Cote. She is a professor of creative writing at University at Albany, SUNY.
Davis is considered hugely influential by a generation of writers including Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers, who once wrote that she "blows the roof off of so many of our assumptions about what constitutes short fiction." ...more

Combine Editions
Lydia Davis’s books

Average rating: 4.07 · 102,397 ratings · 10,737 reviews · 349 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 4.24 avg rating — 6,759 ratings — published 2009 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Can't and Won't 3.58 avg rating — 5,212 ratings — published 2014 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The End of the Story 3.62 avg rating — 3,014 ratings — published 1994 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Varieties of Disturbance 3.83 avg rating — 2,338 ratings — published 2007 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Break It Down 4.03 avg rating — 2,165 ratings — published 1986 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Samuel Johnson Is Indignant 3.96 avg rating — 1,686 ratings — published 2001 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Almost No Memory 3.97 avg rating — 1,255 ratings — published 1997 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Essays One 4.29 avg rating — 718 ratings — published 2019 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Our Strangers: Stories 3.79 avg rating — 804 ratings — published 2023 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cows (Quarternote Chapbook Series) 4.07 avg rating — 506 ratings — published 2011 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Lydia Davis…

Sometimes when you go on vacation, your problems come right along with you. That’s what Keru and Nate discover when they vacation in Cape Cod...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: 25.10 - Belinda's Task - Let's Play The Name Game	50	196	May 31, 2010 07:18PM
100+ Books in 2025: Michael's 100 Books for 2010	68	198	Jan 14, 2011 10:34PM
flight paths: February 14.5000000001 to February 29th	15	18	Feb 29, 2012 02:00PM
Fantasy Book Club...: Nominations open for our next series!	90	207	Mar 22, 2012 03:23AM
Reading with Style: Spring 2012 20.10 - Liz M's task - It's academic	43	89	Apr 17, 2012 06:58PM
The Sword and Laser: Hyp: Hyperion and Canterbury	32	170	May 07, 2012 08:30AM
The Sword and Laser: Hardest Book you have read!!!	149	735	Sep 02, 2012 10:46PM
Challenge: 50 Books: K's 2013 50,000 goal (pages)	29	94	Jan 05, 2013 07:13PM
ANZA Reading Group: The Man Booker International Prize	11	1	Feb 21, 2013 02:31PM

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Lydia to Goodreads.

Lydia Davis’s Followers (1,407)

Lydia Davis

Combine EditionsLydia Davis’s books

Related News

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Lydia Davis’s books