Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, she discusses the isolation among the family members in "Family Ties."

With the short story collection Family Ties, Brazilian author Clarice Lispector firmly established her reputation. Though she has also written novels, in examining her life's work most critics agree that her true medium lies in the shorter fiction form. The stories in Family Ties explore those issues most crucial to the author. Writes Giovanni Pontiero in his introduction to the English translation of Family Ties, "[T]he stories of Laços de Familia give a comprehensive picture of the author's private world of deep psychological complexities. The narrative in these stories often appears to evolve from smoke— from some momentary experience or minor episode that seems quite insignificant in itself...