Eve Shelnutt's short stories have appeared in nearly ten anthologies and sixty journals, including such prestigious literary magazines as the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and Prairie Schooner . But Shelnutt has not had the recognition and critical acclaim that many of her contemporaries, such as Tobias Wolff and Susan Minot, have enjoyed. Her three short-story collections have been published by a relatively small company, Black Sparrow Press, and though they have sold well, they have not been reviewed in major magazines and newspapers. Her stories are more difficult, the study of character and theme more intensely psychological, the language more lyrical, and, because of these distinctions, her work less accessible to readers than the fiction of more-popular writers. Though she is often classified as a "southern writer," her fiction does not provide the commonly identifiable traits of southern literature, such as typical southern tradition, history, and characters. Instead her...