“I looked in vain for LaRoue, my cruelty toward her now in me like a splinter, where it would sit for years in my helpless memory, the skin growing around; what else can memory do? It can do nothing; It pretends to eat the shrapnel of your acts, yet it cannot swallow or chew.”

American writer, critic, and essayist

Lorrie Moore is an American writer, critic, and essayist best known for her short stories. Since 1984, she has also taught creative writing. Her fiction has brought her major awards, and her work is widely associated with the short story form. Alongside her writing, she has maintained a long teaching career in creative writing, and her essays and criticism add to a body of work shaped by close attention to language and form.