Now approaching his 80th year, the writer, teacher and editor Gordon Lish has dedicated his life to redefining the frontiers of American fiction. It’s no overstatement to say that Lish is to the second half of the 20th century what Gertrude Stein was to the first. Mention Lish to most readers, though, and they’ll react in one of two ways: if not with a flummoxed “Who?” then worse, with an “Oh … do you mean the guy who chopped Raymond Carver?”

Read the entire article at the Guardian.