City of Midwest City

The Midwest City Library has been selected to host a pre-release screening of Grace, a profile of the noted American short-story writer, poet, educator, and political activist Grace Paley, on Sunday, March 21, from 3:00-4:30 pm.

Following the showing, there will be brief readings of Ms. Paley's work and general discussion. The event is free and open to the public.

In the documentary, Grace Paley reminisces about her work, life and family, and her early literary and political influences. She is seen in interviews from the 1980’s to 2004, and in live performances at her fabled readings. Grace’s close friends and colleagues—Jean Valentine, Poet Laureate of New York; Vera Williams, author and illustrator; and others—remember Grace as a writer of genius, a “combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist,” and a loving friend. Ms. Paley was born in 1922 and died in 2007.

Grace Paley’s first collection of stories, The Little Disturbances of Man, was published by Doubleday in 1959. More short story and poetry collections followed, including Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), Later the Same Day (1985), Leaning Forward (1985), Long Walks and Intimate Talks (1991), and New and Collected Poems (1992).
Ms. Paley’s work garnered widespread critical attention, and she received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship in fiction in 1961, the PEN/Faulkner Prize for fiction in 1986, and the Edith Wharton Award in 1989. She was named the first official New York State Writer in 1989 and received the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1993. Paley was a National Book Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1994, and received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for fiction in 1997. She taught writing at Columbia University, Syracuse University, and Sarah Lawrence College for many years.

In December, producer Sonya Friedman and Linda Leehman completed the documentary begun by Ms. Friedman’s husband, documentarian Herman Engel, before his death in 2008. Friedman has been an Academy Award Oscar nominee for her documentaries, as well as the recipient of several Emmy awards, a frequent winner of the American Film Festival's Blue Ribbon award, and more. Her films have also been broadcast nationally on PBS.

The Midwest City Library is located at 8143 E. Reno (on the northeast corner of Reno and Midwest Boulevard) in Midwest City. For more information, contact the library at 405-732-4828.