Raymond Carver's (1938-1988) collection of short stories secured his reputation as a major American writer of fiction. Since he appeared, he has been called  the greatest short story writer since Hemingway, as well as the godfather of literary minimalism. His books have been called minimalist masterpieces that explore with careful starkness and understatement of purity of emptiness. Another important modern minimalist short story is Mary Robison(1949 - ). Mary Robison's reputation as a member of the new generation of American short stories writers has steadily increased in recent years. The focus of her attention is on small, apparently insignificant, events which touch, limit, and thus illuminate the lives of ordinary people. The aim of this study is to formulate a definition of minimalism and how Raymond Carver used the style of less is more in his major short stories' collections: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please (1976), What We Talk About When Talk About Love (1981), Cathedral (1983) and Where I'm Calling From (1988). It will also illustrate how Mary Robison is like Carver in using few details that meant a lot in her short story collections An Amateur's Guide to the Night (1983) and Believe Them (1988).This study will reveal that in order for a minimalist's work to be successful, both extreme brevity and extreme singleness of effect must be presented.