Vance Bourjaily said, "Writers who love and create short stories in America today are our purest literary artists, and Robley Wilson, Jr., is a prince among them." Wilson's most recent collection of short stories, Dancing for Men received the 1982 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was called by the Chicago Sun Times "an excellent place to ponder the physics of love." A master of surprise and nuance, Wilson writes about the circumstances that join and divide women and men; much of his work is about politics, sexual and otherwise. The Village Voice reported, "There is no doubt that Wilson is a superb writer," and praised his "technical brilliance" and "lovely, poetic sentences."

Wilson's two previous story collections are Living Alone and The Pleasures of Manhood. He has also written three books of poems and is the editor of The North American Review.

He and Mark Smith will talk about fiction writing and answer questions on Wednesday morning. That afternoon Wilson will read his fiction. [extracted from 1984 brochure]

7th Annual Literary Festival