The Wide Net

The classic short story collection of Southern life by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Optimist's Daughter.

These eight stories reveal the singular imaginative power of one of America's most admired writers. Set in the region of the Old Natchez Trace along the lower Mississippi, the stories dip in and out of history and range from virgin wilderness to a bar in New Orleans.


In "First Love," set in 1807, a deaf and orphaned boot-boy has a remarkable encounter with a man accused of treason, Aaron Burr. "Asphodel" ingeniously recreates a classic legend in the Old South. And the title story captures a moment in time for a pregnant woman and her young husband who has stayed out all night. In each story, Miss Welty sustains the high level of performance that, throughout her distinguished career, has won her numerous literary awards.

"Miss Welty runs a photofinish with the finest prose artists of her time." —Time