Abstract
Gráinne Hurley explores the creative processes of the Irish short story writer, Mary Lavin, as revealed through the close examination of her drafts, typescripts, notes and correspondence with the New Yorker magazine. Focusing on Lavin’s New Yorker stories, the essay discloses new information critical to an understanding of the crafting of her stories and approach to revisions. In addition, it casts light on the New Yorker’s editing procedures and considers how Lavin’s stories were fashioned, in collaboration with her editors, in order to ready them for publication. For Lavin, there was never a final version of a story as she continued to revise and hone her stories, even after publication, as evidenced through a comparison of versions of her work printed in the New Yorker and subsequent publications.
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Hurley, G. (2020). To Cut a Long Story Short: The Shaping of Mary Lavin’s New Yorker Stories. In: Bloom, J., Rovera, C. (eds) Genesis and Revision in Modern British and Irish Writers. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50277-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50277-5_8
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