reported by Stuart Rothenberg, FictionFanatic.com

Paris Stories: The Writing of Mavis Gallant is a documentary profile of one of Canada's leading writers - the Paris-based short story master, Mavis Gallant. Paris Stories explores the force of fiction of a woman who left Canada and her "good job for a girl" to live in a city where writers aren't viewed with suspicion and asked for three months rent in advance.

Considered by both critics and her literary peers to be one of the most "talented women writing in the English language," this film offers an intimate glimpse of a fiercely private woman devoted to the compact elegance of the short story. Produced in association with Bravo!, Paris Stories: The Writing of Mavis Gallant, will have its world television premiere on Thursday, May 4 at 8:30 pm ET.

Selected readings, in-depth interviews and archival footage of a younger Gallant bring the author and her writing into deeper focus. Robert Fulford, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks and others offer insight into her influences and legacy - a literary record of 20th-century Europe and North America.

"The first flash of fiction arrives without words. It consists of a fixed image like a slide or closer still a freeze frame showing characters in a simple situation...." said Mavis Gallant, reading from The Selected Stories.

Paris Stories is directed and produced by Lynn Booth; edited by Shelly Hamer; written by Timothy Taylor; Directory of Photography Clancy Dennehy; and original music by Robyn Traill.

Website: www.makebelievemedia.com

Recommended Resources:

1) The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant

2) Paris Stories (New York Review Books Classics) by Mavis Gallant

3) The Wandering Jews by Mavis Gallant