There's a case to be made that Grace Paley was first and foremost an antinuclear, antiwar, antiracist feminist activist who managed, in her spare time, to become one of the truly original voices of American fiction in the later twentieth century. Just glance at the "chronology" section of "A Grace Paley Reader" , a welcome new collection of her short stories, nonfiction, and poems, edited by Kevin Bowen and Paley's daughter, Nora.