(1938 – 1988) Postwar writer who fashioned stark portrayals of twentieth-century American life in pared-down, elegant prose. Although he also wrote poetry and essays, Carver— sometimes called the ‘American Chekov”—is best known for his short stories. These often featured characters bumping into the limits of their worlds in sudden, subtle epiphanies. An exemplary and much anthologized example of Carver’s work is the story “Cathedral.” Carver was often credited with influencing the growth of an informal school of writing—dubbed “minimalism” or “the new realism”—that became increasingly popular in the 1980s. In 1993 American film-maker Robert Altman directed Short Cuts, a movie based on Carver’s stories.