Dancers on the Shore

'There is no need of prophesying that Mr. Kelley will one day be among the best American short story writers. Dancers on the Shore proves that he already is' New York Herald Tribune

In 1964, two years after the critically lauded release of his debut novel A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley published his first collection of short stories, Dancers on the Shore. Reissued in a new edition by riverrun, these seventeen stories expand Kelley's literary world, showcase his limitless imagination and spotlight his inimitable talent.

“There is no need of prophesying that Mr. Kelley will one day be among the best American short story writers. Dancers on the Shore proves that he already is. - New York Herald TribuneKelley shows himself to be a master of the short story as well as of the novel. - Chicago Tribune”

There is no need of prophesying that Mr. Kelley will one day be among the best American short story writers. Dancers on the Shore proves that he already is. - New York Herald Tribune

Kelley shows himself to be a master of the short story as well as of the novel. - Chicago Tribune

Born in New York in 1937, William Melvin Kelley was an African-American writer known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America. He was just twenty-four years old when his debut novel, A Different Drummer, was first published in 1962, earning him critical comparisons to William Faulkner and James Baldwin. Dancers on the Shore, published in 1964, is his first collection of short stories, appearing between the publications of his first and second novels, A Different Drummer and A Drop of Patience. Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, Kelley was in 2014 officially credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with coining the political term 'woke,' in a 1962 New York Times article entitled 'If You're Woke You Dig It'. He died in February of 2017, aged 79.

'There is no need of prophesying that Mr. Kelley will one day be among the best American short story writers. Dancers on the Shore proves that he already is' New York Herald Tribune In 1964, two years after the critically lauded release of his debut novel A Different Drummer , William Melvin Kelley published his first collection of short stories, Dancers on the Shore . Reissued in a new edition by riverrun, these seventeen stories expand Kelley's literary world, showcase his limitless imagination and spotlight his inimitable talent.

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