Mansfield’s “Bliss” considered a “paragon of modernist literature”

“Influence in writing is often spoken about as something dirty or shameful, something to be avoided, but here it offers a way for artists to connect across decades, to find courage and company outside the limitations of their own era.”

In the newest issue of the literary annual NOON, Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Bliss” is reprinted alongside “The Life of the Palm and the Breast”, American writer Christine Schutt’s response to “Bliss”, a way NOON’s senior editors describe as “a way of achieving the impossible—bending time, allowing two artists who never lived in the same moment to greet each other”.

Mansfield’s “Bliss” is considered a “paragon of modernist literature”, appearing widely in anthologies and classrooms. Both “Bliss” and “The Life of the Palm and Breast” can be read on the Literary Hub website.

Original article by NOON senior editors (Rachel Chait, Zach Davidson, Madelaine Lucas, Liza St. James), Literary Hub, March 2023.