Crafting the Very Short Story

Description

This outstanding anthology is comprised of acclaimed authors from diverse cultures and both genders. Organized alphabetically and stylistically, CRAFTING‘S wealth of classic, modern, and avant-garde fiction features numerous genres and serves as an excellent introduction to the authors’ longer works. The text includes writing instruction, exercises, a glossary of literary terms, scholarly commentary, and 14 personal essays by the writers on form, key stylistic elements, and stories included in the collection. The rich variety of narratives and the overall reader-friendly structure make this compendium an essential tool for teaching fiction and crafting the very short story.

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• Length of readings—Each story is between 1 and 6 pages in length.

  • Enables students to quickly read each piece, saving time and keeping their interest; Allows instructors to easily find pieces to assign that pertain to their curriculum.

• Writer’s essays—Esteemed authors present their views on fiction devices central to the very short story.

  • Allows students to receive practical instruction from the best sources, proven professionals.

• Stylistic table of contents.

  • Enables instructors to easily chose stories and essays that focus on a particular short story device; aids students who want to compare and contrast how different writers utilize the same device.

• Glossary—Includes literary terms used in the text.

  • Enables students to have a quick reference guide while studying the readings and provides engaging introductions to the longer works of such authors as Hemingway, Melville, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Nabokov and Joyce.

(NOTE: A Stylistic Table of Contents is included in the second part of the text, which arranges the essays and stories by specific elements of style.)

I. STORIES & ESSAYS.

Cata 1., 2., and 3., Jonis Agee. Hands, Sherwood Anderson. First Person: Sherwood Anderson on “Writing Stories”. Commentary: Robert Allen Papinchak on “Anderson’s Prose Style”. Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood. My First Goose, Isaac Babel. Words, Amiri Baraka. First Person: Amiri Baraka on “Voice and Beginnings”. Janus, Ann Beattie. The Pot of Basil, Giovanni Boccaccio. The Book of Sand, Jorge Luis Borges. The Astronomer’s Wife, Kay Boyle. The Monster, Berthold Brecht. My Madness, Charles Bukowski. The Tale of the Cats, Italo Calvino. First Person: Italo Calvino on “Economy of Expression”. The Werewolf, Angela Carter. Popular Mechanics, Raymond Carver. First Person: Raymond Carver, “On Writing”. The Physician’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer. The Worm in the Apple, John Cheever. The Huntsman, Anton Chekhov. Commentary: Vladimir Nabokov on “Chekhov’s Prose”. Caline, Kate Chopin. My Name, Sandra Cisneros. Bygone Spring, Colette. Continuity of Parks, Julio Cortàzar. An Episode of War, Stephen Crane. Night Women, Edwidge Danticat. First Person: Edwidge Danticat “On Writing Night Women”. The Sock, Lydia Davis. The Child’s Story, Charles Dickens. Vag, John Dos Passos. The Heavenly Christmas Tree, Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Colonel, Carolyn Forche. The Other Side of the Hedge, E.M. Forster. The Press Gang, Janet Frame. The Subversive, Bruce Jay Friedman. The Story of the Lizard Who Had a Habit of Dining on His Wives, Eduardo Galeano. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Gabriel García Màrquez. Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet? Nadine Gordimer. The Innocent, Graham Greene. The Hollow of the Three Hills, Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Very Short Story, Ernest Hemingway. Weekend, Amy Hemple. The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry. A Penny for Your Thoughts, Chester Hines. Symphony, Pam Houston. Jazz, Jive, and Jam, Langston Hughes. Janice, Shirley Jackson. First Person: Shirley Jackson on “Notes to a Young Writer”. Araby, James Joyce. Commentary: Medieval Romance and the Structure of “Araby”, Jerome Mandel; Analyzing “Araby” as Story and Discourse, James Sonoski; Aspects of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in “Araby”, Steven Doloff. First Sorrow, Franz Kafka. The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket, Yasunari Kawabata. Girl, Jamaica Kincaid. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin. First Person: “The Sound of Your Writing; Sentence Length and Complete Syntax; and Point of View,”Ursula K. Le Guin. Soulstorm, Clarice Lispector. The Prodigal Son, Luke. Half a Day, Naguib Mafouz. A Lost Grave, Bernard Malamud. A Vision, Thomas Mann. Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield. First Person: Katherine Mansfield on “Crafting Miss Brill.” The Return, Sadat Hasan Manto. The Ant and the Grasshopper, W. Somerset Maugham. A Piece of String, Guy de Maupassant. Daniel Orme, Herman Melville. Sand, W.S. Merwin. Under the Sand, Mark Mills. Swaddling Clothes, Yukio Mishima. The Kid’s Guide to Divorce, Lorrie Moore. “The Fetish, Alberto Moravia. First Person: Alberto Moravia on The Short Story and the Novel.” Courtly Vision, Bharati Mukherjee. Prue, Alice Munro. Reginald’s Choir Treat, Hector Hugh Monro. The Open Window, Hector Hugh Munro. Signs and Symbols, Vladimir Nabokov. Text Analysis: Decoding Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols”, John V. Hagopian; “Sacred Dangers: Nabokov’s Distorted Reflection,” David Field; “Innocent Trifles,” or “Signs and Symbols”, Carole M. Doe. Mallorca, Anais Nin. First Person: “Out of the Labrynth: An Interview,”Anais Nin. Politics, Joyce Carol Oates. First Person: Joyce Carol Oates on The Very Short Story; The Nature of Short Fiction; or The Nature of My Short Fiction; and Fictions, Dreams, and Revelations. The Bridal Night, Frank O’Connor. The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick. A Conversation with My Father, Grace Paley. Soldiers of the Republic, Dorothy Parker. The Widow of Ephesus, Petronius. Sweethearts, Jayne Anne Phillips. The Little Hut, Luigi Pirandello. The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe. First Person: Edgar Allan Poe on The Single Unifying Effect. A Story of Don Juan, V.S. Pritchett. Before the Night, Marcel Proust. Distant View of Minaret, Alfia Rifaat. Yours, Mary Robison. The Third Night, Natsume Soseki. Breakfast, John Steinbeck. The Young Lady of the Tung T’ing Lake, P’u Sung-Ling. Neighbors, Paul Theroux. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber. Love of His Life, Wilmar N. Tognazzini. The Three Hermits, Leo Tolstoy. First Person: What is Art? Leo Tolstoy. Fern, Jean Toomer. Lifeguard, John Updike. I’m Your Horse in the Night, Luisa Valenzuela. The Doctor’s Heroism, Villiers de L’isle-Adam. The Moths, Helena Vivien Viramontes. Plato’s Dream, Voltaire. Roselily, Alice Walker. Commentary: Edwidge Danticat on Crafting Roselily. Mislaid Plans, Monica Ware. A Visit of Charity, Eudora Welty. First Person: Eudora Welty on setting: Place in Fiction. The Richer, The Poorer, Dorothy West. The Artist, Oscar Wilde. Tent Worms, Tennessee Williams. Big Ruthie Imagines Sex Without Pain, S.L. Wisenberg. Powder, Tobias Wolff. A Haunted House, Virginia Woolf.

II. STYLISTIC TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Voice.

Point of View.

Setting.

Crafting Guidelines.Glossary.

This anthology is an international story collection by critically-acclaimed authors, and includes essays by renowned writers and scholars on the key stylistic elements of this relatively new art form: the very short story. Authors of these classic, modern, and avant garde stories include Alice Walker, Yasunari Kawabata, Helena Vivien Viramontes, Amy Hemple, H.H. Munro, and Anton Chekhov, plus many others. It provides students with an exciting taste of global literature, and writing guidelines which includes a list of 10 succinct crafting instructions enables students to focus on key aspects of writing as they analyze the authors’ prose and write their own very short stories.

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