Kenneth “Ken” Randall, a former professor and dean at the University of Alabama School of Law, is the president and chief executive officer of iLaw and iLawGlobal in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Beyond his professional activities, Kenneth Randall enjoys staying active by playing tennis.The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) standardized its ranking system in 1973. Since that time, 26 male players have held the number one ranking. American Jimmy Connors, the third player to reach the top of the ATP rankings, put together the tour’s first extensive number one reign. Beginning in July of 1974, Connors held the top position for 160 consecutive weeks. He ultimately held the top spot for 268 weeks over the course of nine reigns spanning nearly a decade.In July of 1999, 16 years after Connor’s last stint as world number one, American Pete Sampras finished his ninth run as the top ranked player on tour, a three week stay that brought his career total to 270 weeks, surpassing Connor’s record. Sampras finished his career with 286 weeks as the world’s top ranked male player, completed over about eight years.The third and most impressive run as world number one began in February of 2004. Roger Federer of Switzerland spent 237 consecutive weeks as the world’s best player, the longest consecutive streak ever seen at the top of the game. Federer would relinquish the number one ranking to rival Rafael Nadal for 46 weeks between 2008 and 2009, but would add runs of 48 and 17 weeks, bringing his career total and the all-time ATP record to 302 weeks.
For nearly five years, Kenneth “Ken” Randall has managed all business and creative development activities at iLaw and iLawGlobal in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as president and chief executive officer. He previously spent 20 years as dean of the University of Alabama School of Law. Beyond his legal activities, Kenneth Randall enjoys reading and writing short fiction.While many conversations on American literature revolve around the enigmatic concept of the Great American Novel, the nation has produced an equally impressive array of short stories. In 1908, Jack London, author of classic American novels like White Fang and The Call of the Wild, produced a man-versus-nature short that has survived the test of time. In "To Build a Fire," London's narrative follows a man and dog traveling through freezing Northwestern Canada and the decisions both characters must make as conditions continue to worsen.Written in 1948, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is arguably the most recognizable piece of short fiction in the American canon. The story describes a small-town gathering for a seemingly innocuous-seeming lottery, but as the drawing comes closer, Jackson ratchets up the tension and ultimately employs a horrifying twist that will stay with readers forever. The story is sometimes compared to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a horror approach to issues of physical and mental illness first published in The New England Magazine in 1892.More recently, authors such as George Saunders and Junot Diaz have made the form their own. Saunders’ most recent story collection, The Tenth of December, received near unanimous levels of praise, the likes of which are generally reserved for novels. Diaz, meanwhile, has spent decades writing stories about the culture shift individuals experience whenever traveling between the Dominican Republic and the United States, stories collected in books like Drown and This Is How You Lose Her. He recently edited The Best American Short Stories 2016. Other popular writers of American short fiction include Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, and Edgar Allen Poe.
