Lucia Berlin

Lucia Berlin (1936-2004) was a short story writer. She didn’t get published until later in life, with some encouragement from poet Ed Dorn. Berlin was never a bestseller, but was widely influential within the literary community. She has often been compared to Raymond Carver and Richard Yates. One of her most memorable achievements was the stunning one-page story My Jockey, which captured a world, a moment and a panoramic movement in five quick paragraphs. It won the Jack London Short Prize for 1985. Berlin also won an American Book Award in 1991 for Homesick, and was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Lucia Berlin was first published in 1977 with A Manual for Cleaning Women. Below is a list of Lucia Berlin’s books in order of when they were first released: Lucia Berlin Synopsis: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin compiles the best work of the legendary short story writer. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humour of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.