The Story and Its Writer by Ann Charters - Tenth Edition, 2019 from Macmillan Student Store
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The Story and Its Writer

An Introduction to Short FictionTenth Edition ©2019 Ann Charters

Ann Charters has an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in the classroom and knows that writers, not editors, have the most interesting and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. Instructors look forward to every new edition of her bestselling anthology t...

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ISBN:9781319194123

ISBN:9781319105600

The Story and Its Writer by Ann Charters - Tenth Edition, 2019 from Macmillan Student Store

The bestselling introduction to fiction anthology where stories and their writers do the talking

Ann Charters has an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in the classroom and knows that writers, not editors, have the most interesting and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. Instructors look forward to every new edition of her bestselling anthology to see what stories her constant search for new fiction and neglected classics will turn up.

To complement the stories, Charters includes her signature innovation: an array of the writers’ own commentaries on the craft and traditions of fiction. The six Casebooks provide in-depth, illustrated studies of particular writers or genres, for unparalleled opportunities for discussion and writing. The new, trimmer, tenth edition features many very recent stories and commentaries by up-and-coming writers; a new Casebook on short shorts or flash fiction; and an expanded focus on why we read, study, and write about short fiction.

Features

A superb and up-to-date collection of stories. Selected by Ann Charters, who has an unmatched ability for choosing stories that become classroom standards, the 112 alphabetically arranged stories by 93 writers represent a variety found in no other anthology of this kind.  From classic fiction by Ernest Hemingway and Kate Chopin to acclaimed very contemporary work by Junot Diaz and Jhumpa Lahiri, The Story and Its Writer is both comprehensive and diverse.

The most extensive selection of commentaries in a fiction anthology. Cross-referenced to individual stories and writers for easy use, the 79 commentaries show how writers think and write about literature, providing students with unparalleled opportunities for discussion and writing.

Illustrated, in-depth Casebooks on important authors, stories, and genres. Each casebook includes images and multiple commentaries by and about the featured writer or work. The casebooks enable in-depth study of:

  • Important authors (Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor)

  • Much-taught stories (James Baldwin’s "Sonny’s Blues," Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wallpaper," and Joyce Carol Oates’ "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?")

  • A popular genre (flash fiction)


Thorough editorial apparatus that keeps the focus on the writers. Abundant for those who want it, yet unobtrusive for those who don't, the apparatus includes:

  • Lengthy headnotes that introduce each writer 

  • Appendices focusing on reading and writing about short fiction (with annotated readings and sample student essays); the elements of fiction; the history of the genre; and literary theory and criticism  

  • A glossary of literary terms to provide additional support


A comprehensive instructor’s manual. It offers sample syllabi, ways to approach each story in the classroom, selection-specific questions for discussion and writing, and suggestions for further readings on each author. A PDF is available for download on the instructor resources tab.

New to This Edition

A stellar array of classic and contemporary stories. 32 new stories include very recent works by Anthony Doerr, George Saunders, Alison Bechdel (graphic fiction) and Zadie Smith, along with fresh works from established authors such as Angela Carter, Don DeLillo, Alice Munro, and Jack Kerouac.

More paired or related stories to encourage students to make connections and offer new ways to teach some of the classics. Of the 19 suggested pairs, new ones include Mary Austin’s take on Washington Irving’s "Rip Van Winkle"; Raymond Carver’s adaptation of the biblical "The Prodigal Son"; and Lydia Davis’ portrayal of mothers and daughters (which connects to Jamaica Kincaid’s "Girl").

14 new commentaries. Among these are Joan Acocella on Angela Carter, Anthony Doerr on "Reading The Story and Its Writer," and George Saunders on reading Barthelme’s "The School."

New stories and an entire casebook that highlight the accessible genre of the short short or flash fiction. The brevity of this form makes it ideal for in-class analysis. We have included new short shorts by writers such as Lydia Davis, Raymond Carver, and Lucia Berlin. An entire casebook on short shorts offers a historical overview, several examples of the form, as well as commentaries by John Barth, Lydia Davis, Charles Baxter, and other practitioners.

An expanded focus on why we read, study, and write about short fiction. It includes a revised student introduction that focuses on the pleasures and importance of close reading; new commentaries by authors and critics that discuss how and why to read literature and short stories, including Terry Eagleton’s "How to Read Literature"; and more coverage of the research paper that includes a new student model essay on Gilman’s "The Yellow Wallpaper."

Chronological and thematic listings of stories and commentaries are newly offered in the front of the book as alternate tables of contents.

A more portable, mid-sized book at a lower price, still packed with great stories. In response to reviewer comments that the book offered far more than anyone could teach in a given term or semester, we have trimmed over 400 pages from the full edition of the book and lowered the price. Users of the former compact edition who requested more literature, will now have more options with a healthy selection of 112 stories, 50 commentaries, and 6 casebooks (containing 29 selections).

"The best contemporary collection of fiction today that also respects the classics."

-Daniel McNamara, Prairie State College

"This is one of the best textbooks I have ever used. It has all the pedagogy I need for majors and non-majors alike. I could pull stories from anywhere, but nowhere else would I get the depth of information to support students who want to be fiction writers, students who want to enjoy reading fiction, and student English majors who want to study the craft."

-Dr. Victoria Ehrhardt, Elizabethtown College

"An essential, well-adjudicated collection of short fiction, featuring canonical and contemporary selections written by celebrated as well as newer American and international writers. The Story and Its Writer aims for multicultural diversity as well as a cross-section of literary subgenres. Its teaching apparatuses are among the best I’ve seen in an edited ‘reader’ textbook."

-Pauline Uchmanowicz, SUNY New Paltz

"The Story and Its Writer offers a great variety of stories and includes supplements and appendices which are helpful resources for students. In addition, the casebooks and commentaries provide an easy to use selection of timely and reliable secondary sources. I always encourage students to get behind the writer’s process and really like the fact that the collection is arranged to support this."

-Tim Stewart, Community College of Rhode Island

"We have suburban, urban, and rural students. They are traditional and non-traditional in their experiences, their ages, ethnicities, nationalities, and their skill levels. The Story and Its Writer works well with all of these students."

-Laura Dearing, Jefferson Community and Technical College

"I can do some many things with this book: the casebooks are already prepared in such as a way that I don’t have to figure out how to pull those materials together myself; the commentaries answer many student questions and humanize the act of writing short fiction; the concise glossary provides ample definitions needed by students as they work with the book; the sections on the literary elements and writing, including sample essays, ensure that I don’t have to assign an additional text."

-Michelle Iskra, Austin Community College

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Table of Contents

[[*Indicates a new section or selection]]
Preface 
Brief Contents  
Contents 
Chronological Listing of Authors and Stories 
Thematic Index to the Stories and Guide to the Commentaries 
*Introduction: Why Study Short Fiction?

PART ONE: STORIES
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven 
Sherwood Anderson, Hands 
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings 
*Mary Austin, The Return of Mr. Wills 
*Isaac Babel, Guy de Maupassant  
James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues 
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson 
*Lynda Barry, Two Questions [graphic story]
*Donald Barthelme, The School 
*Alison Bechdel, The Fellowship [graphic story] 
*Lucia Berlin, My Jockey 
Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 
*Roberto Bolaño, The Insufferable Gaucho 
Jorge Luis Borges, The South 
Ray Bradbury, August 226: There Will Come Soft Rains 
*Frederick Busch, Ralph the Duck 
Alejo Carpentier, Journey to the Seed 
 
*Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves 
Raymond Carver, Cathedral 
*Raymond Carver, Popular Mechanics 
Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love 
Willa Cather, Paul’s Case 
John Cheever, The Swimmer  
Anton Chekhov, The Darling 
Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog 
Kate Chopin, Désirée’s Baby  
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour  
Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q 
*Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Portable Phonograph 
*Julio Cortázar, A Continuity of Parks 
Stephen Crane, The Open Boat 
*Lydia Davis, Pouchet’s Wife 
*Lydia Davis, The Funeral 
*Lydia Davis,The Mother 
*Don De Lillo, Human Moments in World War III  
Junot Díaz, How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie 
*Anthony Doerr, The Deep 
Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal 
Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible 
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily 
William Faulkner, That Evening Sun 
  

*Carolyn Forché, The Colonel 
Gabriel García Márquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 
*Bessie Head, Looking for a Rain God 
Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants 
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat 
Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle 
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery 
Sarah Orne Jewett, A White Heron 
James Joyce, Araby 
James Joyce, The Dead 
*Miranda July, The Swim Team 
Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist 
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis 
*Yasunari Kawabata, The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket 
*Jack Kerouac, October in the Railroad Earth 
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl 
Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpretor of Maladies 
D.H. Lawrence, Odour of Chrysanthemums 
D.H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner 
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas  
Clarice Lispector, The Smallest Woman in the World 
Jack London, To Build a Fire 
 
*Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party 
Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace 
Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener 
*Lorrie Moore, How to become a Writer 
*Alice Munro, Dimensions 
*Keiji Nakazawa, From Barefoot Gen [graphic fiction] 
Joyce Carol Oates, The Lady with the Pet Dog 
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 Fall of the House of Usher 
William Sydney Porter (O.Henry), The Gift of the Magi 
*Annie Proulx, The Blood Bay 
Philip Roth, The Conversion of the Jews 
Joe Sacco, From Palestine:  Refugeeland [graphic story] 
Marjane Satrapi, From Persepolis: “The Veil” [graphic story]
*George Saunders, Puppy 
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, A Brief Encounter with the Enemy 
Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman 
*Zadie Smith, Crazy They Call Me 
Art Spiegelman, Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History [graphic story] 
John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums 
*Tatyana Tolstaya, Aspic 
Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych 
John Updike, A& P 
*Luisa Valenzuela, Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye 
*Helena María Viramontes, The Moths 
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Harrison Bergeron 
Alice Walker, Everyday Use 
David Foster Wallace, Everything is Green 
Eudora Welty, A Worn Path 
William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force 
Tobias Wolff, Say Yes 
Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens 
Richard Wright, The Man Who Was Almost a Man 


PART TWO: COMMENTARIES
*Joan Acocella, How Angela Carter Became Feminism’s Great Mythologist
Paula Gunn Allen, Whirlwind Man Steals Yellow Woman
Sherwood Anderson, Form, Not Plot, in the Short Story 
Margaret Atwood, Reading Blind 
Jorge Luis Borges, Borges and I 
Matthew C. Brennan, Plotting against Chekhov: Joyce Carol Oates and “The Lady with the Dog”
Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, A New Critical Reading of “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Ann Charters, Translating Kafka 
John Cheever, Why I Write Short Stories  
Anton Chekhov, Technique in Writing the Short Story 
Kate Chopin, How I Stumbled upon Maupassant 
Stephen Crane, The Sinking of the Commodore
*Anthony Doerr, On Reading The Story and Its Writer
*Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature 
Ralph Ellison, The Influence of Folklore on “Battle Royal”
Richard Ellmann, A Biographical Perspective on Joyce’s “The Dead”
William Faulkner, The Meaning of “A Rose for Emily”
Janice H. Harris, Levels of Meaning in Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner”
Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Shirley Jackson, The Morning of June 28, 1948 and “The Lottery”
Gustav Janouch, Kafka’s View of “The Metamorphosis”
Sarah Orne Jewett, Looking Back on Girlhood
*Jack Kerouac, Essentials of Spontaneous Prose
Jamaica Kincaid, On “Girl”
D.H. Lawrence, On “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Cask of Amontillado”
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Scapegoat in Omelas
Luis Leal, Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature
Simon Lewis, Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Prose Style of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez
Jack London, Letter to the Editor on “To Build a Fire”
Katherine Mansfield, Review of Woolf’s “Kew Gardens”
Guy de Maupassant, The Writer’s Goal
Herman Melville, Blackness in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
J. Hillis Miller, A Deconstructive Reading of Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Alice Munro, How I Write Short Stories
Vladimir Nabokov, A Reading of Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog”
J.C.C. Nachtigal, Peter Klaus the Goatherd
Tim O’Brien, Alpha Company
Grace Paley, A Conversation with Ann Charters
Jay Parini, Lawrence’s and Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums”
Sydney Plum, Reading “The Veil” by Marjane Satrapi
Edgar Allan Poe, The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale
Joe Sacco, Some Reflections on Palestine
*George Saunders, The Perfect Gerbil: Reading Barthelme’s  “The School”
Leslie Marmon Silko, Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective
Matt Steinglass, Reading Tim O’Brien in Hanoi
Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov’s Intent in “The Darling”
Leo Tolstoy, The Works of Guy de Maupassant
Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View
Eudora Welty, Is Phoenix Jackson’s Grandson Really Dead?

PART THREE: CASEBOOKS

*CASEBOOK ONE: Short Shorts or Flash Fiction
*Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes  
*Félix Fénéon, To Die like Joan of Arc! 
*Félix Fénéon, Discharged Tuesday 
*Franz Kafka, The Wish to become an American Indian 
*John Barth, A Few Words about Minimalism 
*Charles Baxter, On the Very Short Story
 *Joyce Carol Oates, On Very Short Fictions
*Lydia Davis, Reading Short Shorts

CASEBOOK TWO:  James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” 
James Baldwin, Autobiographical Notes 
Keith E. Byerman, Words and Music: Narrative Ambiguity in “Sonny’s Blues” 
Kenneth A. McClane, “Sonny’s Blues” Saved My Life 

CASEBOOK THREE: Raymond Carver  
Raymond Carver, Creative Writing 11  
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 FOUR: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Undergoing the Cure for Nervous Prostration 
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, A Feminist Reading of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” 
*S. Weir Mitchell, from “The Evolution of the Rest Treatment” 
Elaine Showalter, On “The Yellow Wallpaper”  

CASEBOOK FIVE: Flannery O’Connor 
Flannery O’Connor, From Letters, 1954-55  
Flannery O’Connor, Writing Short Stories  
Flannery O’Connor, A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable 
Joyce Carol Oates, The Parables of Flannery O’Connor 
Wayne C. Booth, A Rhetorical Reading of O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” 
Dorothy Tuck McFarland, On “Good Country People” 

CASEBOOK SIX: Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
Joyce Carol Oates, Stories That Define Me: The Making of a Writer 
Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk: Short Story into Film 
Don Moser, The Pied Piper of Tucson: He Cruised in a Golden Car, Looking for Action 

PART FOUR: APPENDICES
1. Reading Short Stories

  • Grace Paley, Samuel

    •

  • Close Reading Short Fiction

  • Guidelines for Close Reading Short Fiction

    • Sample Close Reading: Grace Paley, Samuel

  • Critical Thinking About Short Fiction

2. The Elements of Fiction

  • Plot

  • Character

  • Setting

  • Point of View

  • Style

  • Theme

3. A Brief History of the Short Story

4. Writing About Short Stories

  • Keeping a Short Story Journal

  • Using the Commentaries and Casebooks

  • Writing the Paper

  • Types of Literary Papers

    • Student Essay: Explication:

    • Student Essay: Analysis:

    • Student Essay: Comparison and Contrast:

  • Writing about the Context and the Stories

  • Other Perspectives

    • Student Essay:

  • *Writing the Research Paper

    • *Student Essay: Research Paper:

  • Revising Your Research Paper

5. Literary Theory and Critical Perspectives

  • Formalist Criticism

  • Biographical Criticism

  • Psychological Criticism

  • Historical Criticism

  • Reader-Response Criticism

  • Poststructuralist and Deconstructionist Criticism

  • Gender Criticism

  • Cultural Criticism

  • Selected Bibliography

6. Glossary of Literary Terms

Acknowledgements
Index of Authors and Titles

Ann Charters

Ann Charters received her B.A. at Berkeley and her Ph.D. at Columbia. She first met Kerouac at a poetry reading in Berkeley in 1956, and compiled a comprehensive bibliography of his work in 1967. A professor of English at the University of Connecticut, she is also the editor of Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac and the Portable Kerouac Reader, and the author of Beats and Company: Portrait of a Literary Generation.

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Resources for Teaching The Story and Its Writer (Online Only)

Ann Charters | Tenth Edition | ©2019 | ISBN:9781319194116
This highly praised instructor’s manual presents a wealth of editorial help, including a discussion of each story, selection-specific questions and wr...
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