Wild Nights!

Stories about the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway

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Protean and intrepid Oates not only pays homage to five American writers by brilliantly emulating their styles, but also gains access to their psyches ... Oates is by turns mischievously witty, superbly macabre, and exquisitely sensitive as she parlays bravado literary criticism into shivery stories that undermine iconic figures. ... This is an audaciously subversive collection in which Oates, like Shirley Jackson and Tennessee Williams, combines sophisticated horror with profound insight into the human condition. In all, a tour de force by a signal writer of the American conscience.

—Booklist

Remembering Ray Smith

"For those who knew Ray, however, his personal qualities are what will most be missed. On a couple of occasions I 'house-sat' for Ray and Joyce when they went on a rare extended trip, and what most stays in my memory is Ray showing me how to care for their two cats, their canary, and their plants. No detail was too small for him to discuss, and it struck me that he was a naturally nurturing person, whether dealing with animals, his garden, his authors, his friends, or his wife."

—Greg Johnson

Full Text of "Remembering Ray Smith"