George Saunders

"An indispensable guide to one of the freshest and most innovative writers of the 21st century. The wide-ranging contributions from a team of international scholars capture the energy of George Saunders's genre-busting prose, both introducing new readers to the work and offering new insights to enthusiasts. A landmark in short fiction studies." (Ailsa Cox, Professor of Short Fiction, Edge Hill University, author of "Writing Short Stories" (2nd edition, 2016)) "Read in sequence, these essays build their own story, from the meanings of "work" in George Saunders's art to the representations of a supersaturated consciousness in his polyphonic monologues. It's about the moral imperatives behind the mind-tingling brilliance, the funny-sad humor and soulful grotesqueries, of a major American satirist, but it's also about the practice of imaginative scholarship, and, not accidentally, about the inexhaustible wonders of the short story form." (Susan Lohafer, Professor Emerita, University of Iowa, author of "Reading for Storyness" (2003))

This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013).This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013). The book brings together a team of scholars from around the world to explore topics ranging from Saunders’s treatment of work and religion to biopolitics and the limits of the short story form. It also includes an interview with Saunders specially conducted for the volume, and a preliminary bibliography of his published works and critical responses to an expanding and always exciting creative œuvre. Coinciding with the release of the Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), George Saunders: Critical Essays is the first book-length consideration of a major contemporary author’s work. It is essential reading for anyone interested in twenty-first century fiction.