ریموند کارور
Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. He married at 19, started a series of menial jobs and his own career of 'full-time drinking as a serious pursuit', a career that would eventually kill him. Constantly struggling to support his wife and family, Carver enrolled in a writing programme under author John Gardner in 1958. He saw this opportunity as a turning point.
Rejecting the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called 'dirty realists' or 'K-mart realists'. Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.
After the 'line of demarcation' in Carver's life - 2 June 1977, the day he stopped drinking - his stories become increasingly more redemptive and expansive. Alcohol had eventually shattered his health, his work and his family - his first marriage effectively ending in 1978. He finally married his long-term parter Tess Gallagher (they met ten years earlier at a writers' conference in Dallas) in Reno, Nevada, less than two months before he eventually lost his fight with cancer.
“ترس از ديدن اينکه تو را به درون ماشين پليس می‌رانندترس از به خواب رفتن شبانهترس از به خواب نرفتنترس از تکرار گذشتهترس از پر کشيدن حالترس از زنگ تلفن در سکوت مرگبار شبترس از توفان‌های الکتريکیترس از شستشوی زن با لکه‌ای بر گونه‌اشترس از سگ‌هايی که گفته بودم هار نيستندترس از دلواپسیترس از اجبار به شناخت جنازه‌ی دوستتترس از فراموش شدنترس از دارايی بسيار هر چند مردم آنرا باور نكنند‌ترس از نيم‌رخ‌های روانیترس از دير کردن و ترس از زود آمدنترس از دست‌خط فرزندانم روی پاکت‌های نامهترس از مردن آنها پيش از اينکه من بميرم و احساس گناه کنمترس از زندگی با مادرم هنگامی که هر دو پير شده‌ايمترس از سرآسيمگیترس از فرومردن روز با يادداشتی ناراحت‌کنندهترس از بيدار شدن و ديدن اينکه تو رفته‌ایترس از دوست نداشتن و ترس از دوست نداشتن بسيارترس اينکه چيزی را که دوست می‌دارم مرگ همه‌ی دوست‌داشتنی‌هايم را تضمين کندترس از مرگترس از زندگانی بسيارترس از مرگگفته بودم اين را”