ZZ Packer is an American short fiction writer. She is of African ethnic origin and her most known collection of stories Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (2003) is closely connected with the issue of race affiliation. Still it is not the central issue of her stories. Her short story “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” was written in 2000. The book was appreciated by readers and critics, appeared in the list of Best American Short Stories 2000 and was chosen as a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2006 she was also named an honoree for Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by the National Book Foundation.
Despite the authors origin there is no straight connection of her biography and the story. ZZ Packer started writing at the age of 19, and was well-accepted. She studied at Yale University and successfully finished at another university. Still the only parallels we can trace between the author’s and the main character’s lives are those of Yale and skin color.
Obviously, the theme of the story touches the real life. Social inequality based on racial factor exists even nowadays. So that another theme of a person who has to be strong in society adds to the first one. And in this way the author call us for better relation toward others. Sounding a bit like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, it is a modern story about life and people, about relations and loneliness of a person which have mind different from the others’ minds.
