PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-114-7      $24.95

288 pages; 6 x 9 inches

by William Melvin Kelley

Dancers on the Shore by William Melvin Kelley is an eloquent collection of 16 short stories about love, fear, anger, hate, despair, loneliness, and hope. Together, the stories produce a novel-like blend of character, theme, and conflict. Chig is the main character in several of the stories, and it is through his growth as an expatriate writer that the other characters are illuminated. These charming stories listen in on two lonely older men, follow the exploits of a white sailor who loves black women, and chuckle at the conniving girl who wants to marry Chig. Many of the main characters in Dancers on the Shore appear in several of the stories, weaving a delicate thread throughout the collection. Kelley brilliantly orchestrates these short stories into a powerful work of universal appeal.

Mel Watkins, an editor of The New York Times Book Review, contributes a penetrating introduction to this edition of Dancers on the Shore, one that places the novel squarely in the context of the times in which it was written. The work also contains an appen­dix of reviews the book received upon first publication.

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