Meet the Author
Ann Beattie
American · 1947–undefined · Short story writer
The sharp-eyed chronicler of the baby-boom generation drifting through the aftermath of the sixties.
3 StoryBites Editions
Why read Ann Beattie?
Beattie captures educated, restless people who can't quite commit to anything, told in cool, precise, present-tense prose. She's a master of detail: the right song, the right silence, the exact texture of unease. Read her to feel the quiet disappointment of a generation that expected more.
A life in six dates
- 1947Born in Washington, D.C.
- 1976Publishes Distortions and Chilly Scenes of Winter
- 1982Publishes the story collection The Burning House
- 1986Publishes Where You'll Find Me
- 2005Receives the Rea Award for the Short Story
Themes across the collection
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
Post-sixties AmericaShe documented a generation's slide from idealism into ambivalence.
MinimalismHer spare, deadpan style helped define the era's dominant short-story mode.
The New YorkerHer many stories there made her a defining literary voice of the 1970s and 80s.