Single Scene Short Stories

Single Scene Short Stories

$14.95

SKU: 9781423600626
Quantity Discount
5 + $11.21

Description

Single Scene Short Stories

Edited by Margaret Bishop

The thirty-three works collected in Single Scene Short Stories each have one remarkable quality-the whole of the story takes place in one scene, one geographical coordinate, one window of time. To think of it dramatically, it is a story presented on a stage with no change of setting or costume, no voice-over summarizing or carrying the viewer from here to there. This collection contains some of the best single scene short stories ever written, the modern classics of this form.

Stories include:

“House Hunting,” Michael Chabon

“The Daughter of Albion,” Anton Chekhov

“The Ninth in E Minor,” Fred Busch

“Crickets,” Robert Olen Butler

“Intimacy,” Raymond Carver

“The Nice Restaurant,” Mary Gaitskill

“Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway

“San Francisco,” Amy Hempel

“Eveline,” James Joyce

“Wine,” Doris Lessing

“A Ruse,” Guy de Maupassant

“In the Warehouse,” Joyce Carol Oates

“Revelation,” Flannery O’Connor

“Mrs. Carrington and Mrs. Crane,” Dorothy Parker

“Wants,” Grace Paley

Sudden Fiction has sold 50,000 copies.

A compilation of acclaimed short stories that each take place within a single scene
When writing poetry in form, the accepted rule is that a poet can deviate from the strictures of the form a time or two, and such departures enhance the poem’s power. An extra foot, an off-rhyme, maybe a double envoi at the end of a sonnet, all have the potential to lift the poem off the page, to transport the reader beyond himself. Similarly, a few allowances in what constitutes a single scene has enabled this collection to be more exemplar than example. A tighter form allows the writer to express emotions—conflict, dissonance, fear, or love—that could be overwhelming or trite given too much

A title form allows the writer to express emotions-conflicts, dissonance, fear, or love-that could be overwhelming or trite given to much free-form space. Perhaps that is why so many of these stories are about disturbed relationships or moments right before the end of life. Love and death and making a scene. The single scene story allows these experiences to go directly into our hearts where they enrich and inform our own awareness of being in this world.

Acknowledgments 9

Introduction 11

The Soul Molecule, Steve Almond 15

Ad Infinitum : A Short Story, John Barth 23

The Voices from the Other Roo m, Richard Bausch 31

August 25 , 1983, Jorge Luis Borges 4 3

The Ninth, in EMinor, Frederick Busch 49

Crickets, Robert Olen Butler 61

Olympus Hills, Ron Carlson 67

Intimacy, Raymond Carver 71

House Hunting, Michael Chabon 79

A Daughter of Albion , Anton Chekhov 95

The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin 99

The Other Wife, Colette 103

The Upturned Face, Stephen Crane 107

The Hypnotizer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman 111

Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway 119

San Francisco, Amy Hempel 125

Eveline, James Joyce 127

Wine, Doris Lessing 133

To Build a Fire, Jack London 139

Psychology, Katherine Mansfield 155

ARuse, Guy de Maup assant 163

Charades, Lorrie Moore 169

In the Warehouse, Joyce Carol Oates 181

Wants , Grace Paley 189

Mrs. Carrington and Mrs. Crane, Dorothy Parker 193

The Jilting of Granny We a the rall, Katherine Anne Porter 197</p

Smoke, Mary Robison 207

The Blind Spot, Saki 213

Twenty Minutes , James Salter 219

A & P, John Up dike 227

The Use of Force, William Carlos Williams 235

Bullet in the Brain, Tobi as Wolff 239

About the Authors 245

Credits 251

Additional information

Weight 1 oz
Dimensions 1 × 6 × 9 in