With the 11 stories in this long-awaited collection, Mary Ward Brown once again offers her devoted fans a palette of new literary pleasures. All but one of her stories are set in Alabama. They deal with dramatic turning points in the lives of people who happen to be southerners. Brown proves herself as a graceful and gifted storyteller who writes with an authoritative pen, inventing and inhabiting the worlds of her sets of characters with insight, compassion and wit. Most of the stories in “It Wasn’t All Dancing” have appeared previously in prominent national magazines and literary journals, including the, Atlantic Monthly, Grand Street, and the Threepenny Review. This fine collection should appeal to a wide audience among writers, literature scholars, and general readers alike.