The Art of the Short Story

The Art of the Short Story PDF Author: Dana Gioia
Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780321363633
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 926

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Book Description
"52 great authors, their best short fiction, and their insights on writing"--Cover.

The Art of the Short Story

The Art of the Short Story PDF Author: Dana Gioia
Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780321363633
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 926

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Book Description
"52 great authors, their best short fiction, and their insights on writing"--Cover.

The Art & Craft of the Short Story

The Art & Craft of the Short Story PDF Author: Rick DeMarinis
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504036859
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
The Art & Craft of the Short Story explores every key element of short fiction, including story structure and form; creative and believable characters; how to begin and where to end; and the generation of ideas; as well as technical aspects such as point of view; plot; description and imagery; and theme. Examples from the work of a wide variety are used. The author includes five of his own stories to demonstrate these topics.

The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs

The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs PDF Author: Leslie Kirk Campbell
Publisher: Sarabande Books
ISBN: 1946448893
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
In these brilliant, thematically linked stories, men and women from the Midwest to the West Coast, from Germany to Japan—engineers, opera singers, waitresses, teenagers, and monks—reckon with their body’s relationship to grief, illness, violation, technology, and genocide. They escape their fate in unusual ways—by befriending the squatting heroin addict next door, using a child’s flute as a gun in the dark, or ordering a new pair of legs, all in a variety of rich settings. The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs is about the ways our bodies are marked by memory, often literally (burns, bruises, tracks, tattoos), and the risky decisions we make when pushed to the extreme. There’s a little O’Connor, a dash of DeLillo, and a cup of Alice Munro mixed together with a great deal of compassion. Leslie Campbell’s fiction debut is a must-read and sure winner.

The Soho Press Book of '80s Short Fiction

The Soho Press Book of '80s Short Fiction PDF Author: Dale Peck
Publisher: Soho Press
ISBN: 1616955465
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 593

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Book Description
In The Soho Press Book of '80s Short Fiction, editor Dale Peck offers readers a fresh take on a seminal period in American history, when Ronald Reagan was president, the Cold War was rushing to its conclusion, and literature was searching for ways to move beyond the postmodern unease of the 1970s. Morally charged by newly politicized notions of identity but fraught with anxiety about a body whose fragility had been freshly emphasized by the AIDS epidemic, the 34 works gathered here are individually vivid, but taken as a body of work, they challenge the prevailing notion of the ’80s as a time of aesthetic as well as financial maximalism. Formally inventive yet tightly controlled, they offer a more expansive, inclusive view of the era’s literary accomplishments. The anthology blends early stories from writers like Denis Johnson, Jamaica Kincaid, Mary Gaitskill, and Raymond Carver, which have gone on to become part of the American canon, with remarkable and often transgressive work from some of the most celebrated writers of the underground, including Dennis Cooper, Eileen Myles, Lynne Tillman, and Gary Indiana. Peck has also included powerful work by writers such as Gil Cuadros, Essex Hemphill, and Sam D’Allesandro, whose untimely deaths from AIDS ended their careers almost before they had begun. Almost a third of the stories are out of print and unavailable elsewhere. The Soho Press Book of ’80s Short Fiction is a daring reappraisal of a decade that is increasingly central to our culture.

The Art of the Tale

The Art of the Tale PDF Author: Daniel Halpern
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
The years since World War II have seen an exciting resurgence of the short story. From Albert Camus to William Maxwell, from Amos Oz to R.K. Narayan, from Ann Beattie to Yukio Mishima - this incomparably rich and diverse collection attests to the vigor and excellence of the modern short story throughout the world. Daniel Halpern's marvelous anthology offers not only European and American but also Third World literature of the first rank (fully a third of the works are translated); and of the English-language stories, a considerable number are by Australian, African, and Asian writers. The eighty-one masterpieces Halpern has chosen include traditional forms, both of classical realism and of the extended fairy tale or fable, as well as the gossipy village banter of the traditional folktale and the outer bounds of surrealist fiction. Many of the stories are cast against an exotic setting; others are humorous and matter-of-fact; some are political, others entirely absorbed with private themes of the heart.

To Be a Man

To Be a Man PDF Author: Nicole Krauss
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 006243103X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
“A sustained shot of brilliance” (Boston Globe)—ten globetrotting stories exploring the complex relationships between men and women. A Best Book/Short Story Collection of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine, Financial Times, Esquire, Lit Hub, Bustle, Electric Literature, Library Journal New York Times Editors’ Choice Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand men and women and the tensions that have existed in all relationships from the beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and an unnamed country in South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature men as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all. The way these stories mirror one another and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and newborn babies; young women’s coming-of-age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. With a fierce, unwavering light To Be a Man illuminates the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, aging. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories, at once startling and deeply moving, are always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength. “Superb. . . . Krauss’s depictions of the nuances of sex and love, intimacy and dependence, call to mind the work of Natalia Ginzburg. . . . Krauss’s stories capture characters at moments in their lives when they’re hungry for experience and open to possibilities, and that openness extends to the stories themselves: narratives too urgent and alive for neat plotlines, simplistic resolutions or easy answers.” —Molly Antopol, New York Times Book Review ”From a contemporary master, an astounding collection of ten globetrotting stories, each one a powerful dissection of the thorny connections between men and women. . . . Each story is masterfully crafted and deeply contemplative, barreling toward a shimmering, inevitable conclusion, proving once again that Krauss is one of our most formidable talents in fiction.” —Esquire

The Souvenir Museum

The Souvenir Museum PDF Author: Elizabeth McCracken
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9781529115086
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
'One of my favourite writers' Nick Hornby One of the most acclaimed writers of our day, award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children's game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half-brother. And on a trip to a water park with their son, two fathers each confront a deep-rooted personal fear. With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken shows how the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. 'McCracken has a gift for spotting the comic potential in situations many of us have endured... Her prose is stippled with just-so observations' Observer 'McCracken is a totally assured performer- even seemingly throwaway perceptions are often memorably poetic, and there is a hint of melancholy under the comedy' Sunday Times 'This incisive, warm-blooded collection of stories is populated by outsiders... McCracken illuminates qualities of human nature through fragments of her characters' lives' New Yorker

The Art of Fiction

The Art of Fiction PDF Author: John Gardner
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307756718
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This classic guide, from the renowned novelist and professor, has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers—and will continue to do so for many years to come. John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, simply and cogently, the principles and techniques of good writing. Gardner’s lessons, exemplified with detailed excerpts from classic works of literature, sweep across a complete range of topics—from the nature of aesthetics to the shape of a refined sentence. Written with passion, precision, and a deep respect for the art of writing, Gardner’s book serves by turns as a critic, mentor, and friend. Anyone who has ever thought of taking the step from reader to writer should begin here.

Firstborn

Firstborn PDF Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1429952989
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
In Brandon Sanderson's riveting "Firstborn," a Tor.com Original short story, much glory is expected of the son of a High Duke of the interstellar Empire. And expected. And still expected, despite endless proof that young Dennison Crestmar has no talent whatsoever for war. But the life Dennison is forced to live will have its surprising lessons to impart. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Book of Tokyo

The Book of Tokyo PDF Author: Hideo Furukawa
Publisher: Comma Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
A shape-shifter arrives at Tokyo harbour in human form, set to embark on an unstoppable rampage through the city’s train network… A young woman is accompanied home one night by a reclusive student, and finds herself lured into a flat full of eerie Egyptian artefacts… A man suspects his young wife’s obsession with picnicking every weekend in the city’s parks hides a darker motive… At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many outsiders: a city of bewildering scale, awe-inspiring modernity, peculiar rules, unknowable secrets and, to some extent, danger. Characters observe their fellow citizens from afar, hesitant to stray from their daily routines to engage with them. But Tokyo being the city it is, random encounters inevitably take place – a naïve book collector, mistaken for a French speaker, is drawn into a world he never knew existed; a woman seeking psychiatric help finds herself in a taxi with an older man wanting to share his own peculiar revelations; a depressed divorcee accepts an unexpected lunch invitation to try Thai food for the very first time… The result in each story is a small but crucial change in perspective, a sampling of the unexpected yet simple pleasure of other people’s company. As one character puts it, ‘The world is full of delicious things, you know.’