Virtual Event: Pamela Painter

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes PAMELA PAINTER—Emerson College professor of Writing, Literature & Publishing and author of the acclaimed story collections, Getting to Know the Weather and The Long and Short of It—for the launch of her latest collection, Fabrications: New and Selected Stories. She will be joined in conversation by fellow professor STEVE YARBROUGH, author of The Realm of Last Chances and The Unmade World: A Novel.

Update

This event has been rescheduled to Friday, January 8 at 7pm ET. 

Contribute to Support Harvard Book Store

While payment is not required, we are suggesting a $3 contribution to support this author series, our staff, and the future of Harvard Book Store—a locally owned, independently run Cambridge institution. In addition, by purchasing a copy of Fabrications on harvard.com, you support indie bookselling and the writing community during this difficult time.

About Fabrications

Pamela Painter's short stories have been praised by Margot Livesey for their "wicked intelligence and ruthless humor." In Fabrications, which brings together 7 new and 24 selected stories, characters struggle to avoid the chaos in their lives, but—driven by addictions and appetites—often bring on disaster. Nobody is ordinary in Painter's stories. A burglar can't believe what he is asked to do by the woman whose jewelry he is stealing. Hitchhikers, hell-bent on murder, are thwarted by the miracle of story-telling. A wife can make rooms—and her husband—disappear, but saves the family dog. A young woman insists on the romance of being married in an Elvis Presley chapel, but for the wrong reasons.

Fabrications is a testament to Painter's lyric skill and psychological insight across her career.

Praise for Fabrications

"Pamela Painter is a master storyteller―captivating, playful, hilarious, tender, perverse, Kafkaesque. Her craft is meticulous yet fluid. And her final sentences are zingers. A story makes a deft turn and comes to a profound stop." —Bobbie Ann Mason, author of The Girl in the Blue Beret

"Pamela Painter's stories abound with characters that linger, moments that enlighten. She is a master of the American short story and Fabrications is a triumphant book." —Pablo Medina, author of The Cuban Comedy

"For the past forty-five years, Pamela Painter has written some of the finest short stories anywhere, and Fabrications is a treasure chest filled with her very best. Witty, moving, wise, and elegant, these stories are gems." —Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World