VICKY SWANKY IS A BEAUTY

Diane Williams' stories offer up brilliant, often darkly comic, epiphanies and have been aptly called "folktales that hammer like a nail gun."

This collection features the inimitable stylist and iconoclast writing at the peak of her powers. Although her work has been celebrated importantly for over twenty years in the leading newspapers and magazines, studied by distinguished literary critics, and taught at colleges and universities across the country in recent years, she has achieved broader mainstream recognition as both a writer and an editor. Harper's Magazine published 23 of her stories (appearing in this collection) in 2009 and 2010 and has 10 more of her stories on file for an edition in the near future. Diane Williams is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes (her most recent in 2010) and has taught at Bard College and Syracuse University and The Center for Fiction. As publisher and founding editor of NOON since 2000, she has increased her visibility as an editor of note. The Times Literary Supplement featured an in-depth appraisal, vehemently saluting NOON's first ten years and commenting that "NOON has intellectual weight...it has investigated, and pushed the boundaries of, the means and processes of communication." She is a frequent guest at colleges and universities.