The Story and Its Writer Compact: An Introduction to Short Fiction
Ann Charters has an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in the classroom, and she knows that writers, not editors, have the most interesting and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. Her anthology, The Story and Its Writer, is the most comprehensive, diverse — and the best-selling — introduction to fiction available, notable for its student appeal as well as its quality and range. To complement the stories, Charters includes her lasting innovation:...
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Ann Charters has an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in the classroom, and she knows that writers, not editors, have the most interesting and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. Her anthology, The Story and Its Writer, is the most comprehensive, diverse -- and the best-selling -- introduction to fiction available, notable for its student appeal as well as its quality and range. To complement the stories, Charters includes her lasting innovation: an array of the writers' own commentaries on the craft and traditions of fiction. For in-depth, illustrated studies of particular writers, her “Casebooks” provide unparalleled opportunities for discussion and writing. For a shorter, more affordable option, the compact edition offers all the editorial features of the full edition with about half the stories and commentaries.
Part One: STORIES Chinua Achebe, Civil Peace Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Isabel Allende, An Act of VengeanceSherwood Anderson, HandsMargaret Atwood, Happy Endings James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson Russell Banks, Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat*Ann Beattie, Snow*Alison Bechdel, From Fun Home: Old Father, Old Artificer [graphic story]*Aimee Bender, The Rememberer Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins *Ray Bradbury, August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains Raymond Carver, Cathedral*Raymond Carver, A Small, Good ThingRaymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About LoveWilla Cather, Paul’s Case *Lan Samantha Chang, Water NamesJohn Cheever, The Swimmer Anton Chekhov, The Darling Kate Chopin, Désirée’s Baby Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour*Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Stephen Crane, The Open Boat Junot Díaz, How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily William Faulkner, That Evening Sun Gabriel García Márquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper *Nadine Gordimer, Homage Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants *Amy Hempel, Church Cancels Cow *A. M. Homes, Things You Should KnowZora Neale Hurston, Sweat Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Gish Jen, Who’s Irish? Sarah Orne Jewett, A White Heron *Edward P. Jones, Bad Neighbors James Joyce, Araby James Joyce, The Dead Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis Jamaica Kincaid, Girl *Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner *Katherine Mansfield, Miss BrillBobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener *Daniyal Mueenuddin, Nawabdin Electrician Bharati Mukherjee, The Management of Grief *Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing *Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl *ZZ Packer, Brownies Grace Paley, A Conversation with My Father Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart *Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall*Annie Proulx, Job History *Joe Sacco, From Palestine: Refugeeland [graphic story]*Marjane Satrapi, From Persepolis: The Veil [graphic story]Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman *Helen Simpson, Homework *Art Spiegelman, Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History [graphic story]Amy Tan, Two Kinds Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych John Updike, A & P *Helena Maria Viramontes, The Moths*Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron Alice Walker, Everyday Use *David Foster Wallace, Good People Eudora Welty, A Worn Path Tobias Wolff, Say Yes Richard Wright, The Man Who Was Almost a Man Part Two: COMMENTARIES Chinua Achebe, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” Sherman Alexie, Superman and MeSherwood Anderson, Form, Not Plot, in the Short StoryMargaret Atwood, Reading BlindJames Baldwin, Autobiographical Notes*Russell Banks, Writing “Poes”*Jorge Luis Borges, Borges and IAnn Charters, Translating KafkaJohn Cheever, Why I Write Short Stories Anton Chekhov, Technique in Writing the Short StoryKate Chopin, How I Stumbled upon Maupassant Stephen Crane, The Sinking of the Commodore R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz, A Hunger Artist [graphic story]Ralph Ellison, The Influence of Folklore on “Battle Royal” William Faulkner, The Meaning of “A Rose for Emily” Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, A Feminist Reading of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Undergoing the Cure for Nervous Prostration Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me Shirley Jackson, The Morning of June 28, 1948, and “The Lottery” Jamaica Kincaid, On “Girl”*Anne Lamott, Finding Your VoiceBobbie Ann Mason, On Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” Guy de Maupassant, The Writer’s GoalHerman Melville, Blackness in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” Alice Munro, How I Write Short StoriesTim O’Brien, Alpha Company Joyce Carol Oates, From “Stories that Define Me: The Making of a Writer”Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk: Short Story into FilmGrace Paley, A Conversation with Ann Charters Edgar Allan Poe, The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale Leslie Marmon Silko, Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective Amy Tan, In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov’s Intent in “The Darling” Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View *David Foster Wallace, Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed Eudora Welty, Is Phoenix Jackson’s Grandson Really Dead? Richard Wright, Reading Fiction Part Three: CASEBOOKS CASEBOOK 1: RAYMOND CARVER Raymond Carver, On WritingRaymond Carver, Creative Writing 101 *Raymond Carver, The Bath Tom Jenks, The Origin of “Cathedral”Arthur M. Saltzman, A Reading of “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” A.O. Scott, Looking for Raymond Carver *CASEBOOK 2: JHUMPA LAHIRI’S “INTERPRETER OF MALADIES” *Jhumpa Lahiri, My Two Lives*Sean Flynn, Jhumpa Lahiri *Simon Lewis, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies CASEBOOK 3: FLANNERY O’CONNORFlannery O’Connor, From Letters 1954-1955 Flannery O’Connor, Writing Short Stories Flannery O’Connor, A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable Wayne C. Booth, A Rhetorical Reading of O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” Dorothy Tuck McFarland, On “Good Country People” CASEBOOK 4: GRAPHIC STORYTELLING *Alison Bechdel, What Little Old Ladies Feel*Charles Hatfield, From Alternative Comics: Toward the Habit of Questioning*Michael Kupperman, Are Comics Serious Literature? [graphic story] Scott McCloud, From Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art [graphic story]*Sydney Landon Plum, Reading “The Veil” by Marjane Satrapi *Joe Sacco, Some Reflections on Palestine*Edward Said, Homage to Joe Sacco Part Four: APPENDICES1. Reading Short Stories [includes Grace Paley, “Samuel”]2. The Elements of Fiction 3. A Brief History of the Short Story 4. Writing About Short Stories5. Literary Theory and Critical Perspectives6. Glossary of Literary Terms7. Chronological Listing of Authors and Stories* new to this edition
