The Short Stories of Edward P. Jones

Edward P. Jones is one of my favorite living short story writers. I say that well aware that he is also the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Known World, but I haven’t read that, and I’m here today to talk about his short stories. He has two collections, Lost in the City, and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and characters intermix between the two books. But what I appreciate most about Jones is how diverse his stories are – in subject matter, in historical time period – but the two threads that run through most of them are Washington, D.C., and Jones’ matter-of-fact tone. Many writers limit their focus on one town, or city, or region, and Jones belongs to that tradition, but have no doubt: inside of Jones’ home city he finds limitless characters and limitless experiences.

Edward P. Jones was born in Washington D.C. in 1950, and was raised there. He went to the University of Virginia. Lost in the City was his first book, published in 1992. All Aunt Hagar’s Children was his third book, published in 2006. But the stories are closely connected. Each of the 14 stories in Lost in the City connects to their counterparts in the 14 stories of All Aunt Hagar’s children. Jones himself described the stories connected by “an umbilical”.

Jones mostly writes “long” short stories, which are often called “novelistic,” a trait he shares with Canadian Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. Of course, there’s at most a negligible market for “long” short stories today; but in my personal opinion, the “long” short story can be incredibly powerful and limber.

I definitely recommend these books.