Literature

About our authors X. J. Kennedy, after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy (“Actually, I was pretty eighth class”). His poems, some published in The New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then, he has published 7 more collections, including a volume of new and selected poems in 2007, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks and 17 books for children, including 2 novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an Aiken-Taylor prize and the Award for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on 5 books and 5 children.Dana Gioia is a poet, critic and teacher. Born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican ancestry, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. (“Not many poets have a Stanford MBA, thank goodness!”) After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published 4 collections of poetry, Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, Pity the Beautiful (2012) and 3 critical volumes, including Can Poetry Matter? (1992), an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America. Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer and Colorado College. From 2003 to 2009 he served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. At the NEA he created the largest literary programs in federal history, including Shakespeare in American Communities and Poetry Out Loud, the national high school poetry recitation contest. He also led the campaign to restore active literary reading by creating The Big Read, which helped reverse a quarter century of decline in US reading. He is currently the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. (The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for “joy.”)Dan Stone worked for many years as a program manager and documentary producer at the National Endowment for the Arts, during which time he wrote, recorded and produced nearly 30 radio documentaries on classic American novels for the Big Read, interviewing more than 200 prominent writers, actors, artists, musicians and public figures. While at the NEA, Stone helped create Poetry Out Loud, the popular national high school recitation contest, and he produced educational and audio programming for the initiatives Shakespeare in American Communities and NEA Jazz Masters. He studied poetry at Colorado College and received an MFA in fiction from Boston University, and he has taught middle school, high school and college. With Dana Gioia, Stone edited Penguin's 100 Great Poets of the English Language. His most recent book, How Money Became Dangerous, is about the modern evolution of Wall Street and the financial services industry. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Radio Silence, a magazine of literature and rock 'n' roll. For City Arts & Lectures and NPR, he has conducted lengthy stage conversations with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, George Saunders and Elvis Costello. Stone owns an establishment near his home in Oakland, California, called North Light, which serves as a bookstore, record store, restaurant and café.

• FICTION Talking with Amy Tan READING A STORY THE ART OF FICTIONTYPES OF SHORT FICTIONSufi Legend, Death Has an Appointment in Samarra A student tries to flee from Death in this brief, sardonic fable.Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes Ever wonder where the phrase “sour grapes” comes from? Find out in this classic fable.Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends With friends like these, you can guess what the camel doesn’t need.Chuang Tzu, Independence The Prince of Ch’u asks the philosopher Chuang Tzu to become his advisor and gets a surprising reply in this classic Chinese fable.Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death Neither God nor the Devil came to the christening. In this stark folktale, a young man receives magical powers with a string attached.PLOTTHE SHORT STORYJohn Updike, A & P In walk three girls in nothing but bathing suits, and Sammy finds himself no longer an aproned checkout clerk but an armored knight.WRITING EFFECTIVELYWilhelm Grimm on Writing, On the Nature of Fairy TalesTHINKING ABOUT PLOTCHECKLIST: Writing about PlotTOPICS FOR WRITING ON PLOTTERMS FOR REVIEWPOINT OF VIEW IDENTIFYING POINT OF VIEWTYPES OF NARRATORSHOW MUCH DOES A NARRATOR KNOW?STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESSWilliam Faulkner, A Rose for Emily Proud, imperious Emily Grierson defies the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?Muriel Spark, The First Year of My Life An omniscient infant narrator, able to access any conversation or scene on the planet, is born into a time of war.Eudora Welty, A Worn Path When the man says to old Phoenix, “You must be a hundred years old, and scared of nothing,” he might be exaggerating, but not by much.James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues Two brothers in Harlem see life differently. The older brother is the sensible family man, but Sonny wants to be a jazz musician.WRITING EFFECTIVELYJames Baldwin on Writing, Race and the African American WriterTHINKING ABOUT POINT OF VIEWCHECKLIST: Writing About Point of ViewTOPICS FOR WRITING ON POINT OF VIEWTERMS FOR REVIEWCHARACTER CHARACTERIZATIONMOTIVATIONTobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain Anders is in line when armed robbers enter the bank, and he can’t help but get involved.Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Alone in the house, Connie finds herself helpless before the advances of Arnold Friend, a spellbinding imitation teenager.Toni Morrison, Recitatif Over many decades, two women’s lives continue to collide, as they find that their relationship is complicated by the challenges of race, class, and circumstance.Raymond Carver, Cathedral He never expected to find himself trying to describe a cathedral to a blind man. He hadn’t even wanted to meet this odd, old friend of his wife.WRITING EFFECTIVELYRaymond Carver on Writing, Commonplace but Precise LanguageTHINKING ABOUT CHARACTERCHECKLIST: Writing about CharacterTOPICS FOR WRITING ON CHARACTERTERMS FOR REVIEWSETTING ELEMENTS OF SETTINGHISTORICAL FICTIONREGIONALISMNATURALISMHOW SETTING CAN HARMONIZE WITH OTHER ELEMENTS OF A STORYKate Chopin, The Storm Even with her husband away, Calixta feels happily, securely married. Why then should she not shelter an old admirer from the rain?Jack London, To Build a Fire Seventy-five degrees below zero. Alone except for one mistrustful wolf dog, a man finds himself battling a relentless force.Ron Carlson, At the Jim Bridger Two men nearly freeze to death in the Wyoming wilderness. How does their intimate encounter with their mortality change them?Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets A young woman flies with her father to China to meet two half-sisters she never knew existed.WRITING EFFECTIVELYAmy Tan on Writing, Developing a SettingTHINKING ABOUT SETTINGCHECKLIST: Writing About SettingTOPICS FOR WRITING ON SETTINGTERMS FOR REVIEWTONE AND STYLE TONESTYLEDICTIONErnest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place All by himself each night, the old man lingers in the bright café. What does he need more than brandy?William Faulkner, Barn Burning This time when Ab Snopes wields his blazing torch, his son Sarty faces a dilemma: whether to obey or defy the vengeful old man.IRONYO. Henry, The Gift of the Magi A young husband and wife find ingenious ways to buy each other Christmas presents, in the classic story that defines the word “irony.”Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers several different outcomes.WRITING EFFECTIVELYErnest Hemingway on Writing, The Direct StyleTHINKING ABOUT TONE AND STYLECHECKLIST: Writing about Tone and StyleTOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE AND STYLETERMS FOR REVIEWTHEME PLOT VERSUS THEMESUMMARIZING THE THEMEFINDING THE THEMEStephen Crane, The Open Boat In a lifeboat circled by sharks, tantalized by glimpses of land, a reporter scrutinizes Fate and learns about comradeship.Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q The trouble with buying Barbie dolls is that you want all the clothes, companions, and accessories. But in this neighborhood, things suddenly change.Luke, The Parable of the Prodigal Son A father has two sons. One demands his inheritance now and leaves to spend it with ruinous results.Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Harrison Bergeron Are you handsome? Then off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Then a transmitter will sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.WRITING EFFECTIVELYKurt Vonnegut Jr. on Writing, The Themes of Science FictionTHINKING ABOUT THEMECHECKLIST: Writing About ThemeTOPICS FOR WRITING ON THEMETERMS FOR REVIEWSYMBOL ALLEGORYSYMBOLSRECOGNIZING SYMBOLSJohn Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums Fenced-in Elisa feels emotionally starved–then her life promises to blossom with the arrival of the scissors-grinding man.Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace A woman enjoys one night of luxury, and then spends years of her life paying for it.Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Omelas is the perfect city. All of its inhabitants are happy. But everyone’s prosperity depends on a hidden evil.Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Splintered and faded, the sinister black box has worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town can remember.WRITING EFFECTIVELYShirley Jackson on Writing, Biography of a StoryTHINKING ABOUT SYMBOLSCHECKLIST: Writing About SymbolsSample Student Paper, An Analysis of the Symbolism in Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLSTERMS FOR REVIEWGENRE FICTION ROMANCE VERSUS REALISMWHAT IS GENRE?COMMON TYPES OF GENRE FICTIONGENRE AND POPULAR CULTURERay Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder In 2055, you can go on a Time Safari to hunt dinosaurs 60 million years ago. But put one foot wrong, and suddenly the future’s not what it used to be.Kelly Link, The Faery Handbag The magical handbag allows one to access other worlds, with both beautiful and dark consequences.H. P. Lovecraft, The Outsider He has been locked in a gothic castle for his entire life, until the day he escapes, but what he discovers outside sends him running back to his dark captivity.Dashiell Hammett, One Hour Someone killed a man named Newhouse in broad daylight on a San Francisco street. Our detective is on the case.WRITING EFFECTIVELYRay Bradbury on Writing, Falling in Love at the LibraryTOPICS FOR WRITINGTERMS FOR REVIEWREADING LONG STORIES AND NOVELS ORIGINS OF THE NOVELNOVELISTIC METHODSREADING NOVELSLeo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych The supreme Russian novelist tells how a petty, ambitious judge, near the end of his wasted life, discovers a harrowing truth.Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis “When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect.” Kafka’s famous opening sentence introduces one of the most chilling stories in world literature.WRITING EFFECTIVELYFranz Kafka on Writing, Gustav Janouch Discussing The MetamorphosisTHINKING ABOUT LONG STORIES AND NOVELSCHECKLIST: Writing About Long Stories and NovelsTOPICS FOR WRITING ON LONG STORIES AND NOVELSTERMS FOR REVIEWLATIN AMERICAN FICTION EL BOOMMAGIC REALISMAFTER EL BOOMARGENTINA: Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark A young man from Buenos Aires is trapped by a flood on an isolated ranch. To pass the time, he reads the Gospel to a family, with unforeseen results.COLOMBIA: Gabriel García Márquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Even in death, a mysterious stranger has a profound effect on all of the people in the village.CHILE: Isabel Allende, Revenge The young, beautiful Dulce Rosa Orellano is Queen of the Carnival and the daughter of a beloved Senator, and then a night of terrible violence changes her life forever.MEXICO: Juan Rulfo, Tell Them Not to Kill Me! A violent episode from decades past catches up with an old man. Will he be saved from the firing squad?WRITING EFFECTIVELYJorge Luis Borges on Writing, On StorytellingTOPICS FOR WRITINGTERMS FOR REVIEWCRITICAL CASEBOOK: Flannery O’Connor FLANNERY O’CONNORA Good Man Is Hard to Find Wanted: The Misfit, a cold-blooded killer. An ordinary family vacation leads to horror–and one moment of redeeming grace.Revelation Mrs. Turpin thinks herself Jesus’s favorite child, until she meets a troubled college girl. Soon violence flares in a doctor’s waiting room.Parker’s Back A tormented man tries to find his way to God and to his wife–by having himself tattooed.FLANNERY O’CONNOR ON WRITINGInsights into “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”On Her Catholic FaithCRITICS ON FLANNERY O’CONNORBenjamin Percy, There Will Be Blood: Violence in Flannery O’Connor’s FictionJ. O. Tate, A Good Source Is Not So Hard to Find: The Real Life MisfitLouise S. Cowan, The Character of Mrs. Turpin in “Revelation”Damian J. Ference, No Vague BelieverLucinda Williams, Meeting Flannery O’ConnorWRITING EFFECTIVELYTOPICS FOR WRITING ON FLANNERY O’CONNORCRITICAL CASEBOOK: Three Stories in Depth EDGAR ALLAN POEThe Tell-Tale Heart The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.EDGAR ALLAN POE ON WRITINGOn ImaginationThe Philosophy of CompositionCRITICS ON “THE TELL-TALE HEART”Daniel Hoffman, The Father-Figure in “The Tell-Tale Heart”Scott Peeples, “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a Love StoryCharles Baudelaire, Poe’s CharactersCHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMANThe Yellow Wallpaper A doctor prescribes a “rest cure” for his wife after the birth of their child. The new mother tries to settle in to life in the isolated and mysterious country house they have rented for the summer. The cure proves worse than the disease in this Gothic classic.CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN ON WRITINGWhy I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”The Nervous Breakdown of WomenCRITICS ON “THE YELLOW WALLPAPER”Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in “The Yellow Wallpaper”Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Imprisonment and Escape: The Psychology of ConfinementElizabeth Ammons, Biographical Echoes in “The Yellow Wallpaper”ALICE WALKEREveryday Use When successful Dee visits from the city, she has changed her name to reflect herAfrican roots. Her mother and sister notice other things have changed, too.ALICE WALKER ON WRITINGThe Black Woman Writer in AmericaReflections on Writing and Women’s LivesCRITICS ON “EVERYDAY USE”Barbara T. Christian, “Everyday Use” and the Black Power MovementMary Helen Washington, “Everyday Use” as a Portrait of the ArtistHouston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Stylish vs. Sacred in “Everyday Use”WRITING EFFECTIVELYTOPICS FOR WRITINGGALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL VOICES NIGERIA: Chinua Achebe, Dead Men’s Path The new headmaster of the village school is determined to fight superstition, but the villagers do not agree.BANGLADESH: Tahmima Anam, Garments The girl who works next to Jesmin in the garments factory says one day, “My boyfriend wants to marry you.” Should Jesmin become this man’s third wife?MEXICO: Inés Arredondo, The Shunammite When Luisa visits her dying uncle, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever.ALGERIA/FRANCE: Albert Camus, The Guest A prisoner is delivered to a schoolhouse on a remote hillside, and the schoolmaster must decide what to do with him.SOUTH AFRICA: Nadine Gordimer, The Defeated In a dusty South African mining town, two schoolgirls become unlikely friends. As they grow up together, they start to grow apart.JAPAN: Kazuo Ishiguro, A Family Supper Something very odd lurks beneath the surface of this family supper, and it might prove fatal.CHINA: Ha Jin, Saboteur When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.ANTIGUA: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl “Try to walk like a lady, and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.” An old-fashioned mother tells her daughter how to live.EGYPT: Naguib Mahfouz, The Lawsuit He thought he’d seen the last of his late father’s second wife, but now she’s back to trouble his peaceful existence.INDIA: Bharati Mukherjee, Saints Shawn wanders around his neighborhood at night, imagining an existence other than the sad, confusing, and often frightening home life dominated by the unwelcome presence of his mom’s boyfriend, Wayne.CANADA: Alice Munro, Wild Swans Rose has a disturbing and transformative experience on her first train ride to the big city.IRAN: Marjane Satrapi, Kim Wilde (from Persepolis) During the Islamic Revolution, rock ‘n’ roll contraband is smuggled into Iran.STORIES FOR FURTHER READING Sherman Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona The only one who can help Victor when his father dies is a childhood friend he’s been avoiding for years.T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears to be a wasteland. One grim night on its shore, three “dangerous characters” learn a lesson.Willa Cather, Paul’s Case Paul’s teachers can’t understand the boy. Then one day, with stolen cash, he boards a train for New York and the life of his dreams.Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name.”Neil Gaiman, How to Talk to Girls at Parties Two teenage boys try to navigate their way through a party filled with exotic, mysterious girls.Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Urged on through deepening woods, a young Puritan sees–or dreams he sees–good villagers hasten toward a diabolic rite.Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat Delia’s hard work paid for her small house. Now her drunken husband Sykes has promised it to another woman.James Joyce, Araby If only he can find her a token, she might love him in return. As night falls, a Dublin boy hurries to make his dream come true.Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies Mr. Kapasi’s life had settled into a quiet pattern–and then Mrs. Das and her family come into it.Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happens to share a bench with two lovers in the park.Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried What each soldier carries into the combat zone is largely determined by necessity, but each man’s necessities differ.Daniel Orozco, Orientation “Those are the offices and these are the cubicles.” Welcome to the first day of your new job.George Saunders, Puppy A puppy for sale exposes the vast class differences between seller and buyer.Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Marauders ransack an island in a terrible show of violence, but not all the pirates have dark hearts.Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House Whatever hour you wake, a door is shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walks, hand in hand.POETRY Talking with Kay Ryan READING A POEM POETRY OR VERSEHOW TO READ A POEMPARAPHRASEWilliam Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of InnisfreeLYRIC POETRYRobert Hayden, Those Winter SundaysAdrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer’s TigersNARRATIVE POETRYAnonymous, Sir Patrick SpenceRobert Frost, “Out, Out–”DRAMATIC POETRYRobert Browning, My Last DuchessDIDACTIC POETRYWRITING EFFECTIVELYAdrienne Rich on Writing, Recalling “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”THINKING ABOUT PARAPHRASINGWilliam Stafford, Ask MeWilliam Stafford, A Paraphrase of “Ask Me”CHECKLIST: Writing a ParaphraseTOPICS FOR WRITING ON PARAPHRASINGTERMS FOR REVIEWLISTENING TO A VOICE TONETheodore Roethke, My Papa’s WaltzStephen Crane, The WayfarerAnne Bradstreet, The Author to Her BookRhina Espaillat, Bilingual / BilingüeFranz Wright, AlcoholGwendolyn Brooks, Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward.Weldon Kees, For My DaughterTHE SPEAKER IN THE POEMNatasha Trethewey, White LiesEdwin Arlington Robinson, Luke HavergalAnonymous, Dog HaikuWilliam Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a CloudDorothy Wordsworth, Journal EntryKaren An-hwei Lee, RainfallWilliam Carlos Williams, The Red WheelbarrowIRONYRobert Creeley, Oh NoW. H. Auden, The Unknown CitizenSharon Olds, Rite of PassageThomas Hardy, The WorkboxSarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf LinksEdna St. Vincent Millay, Second FigFOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDYWilliam Blake, The Chimney SweeperRichard Lovelace, To LucastaWilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum EstWRITING EFFECTIVELYWilfred Owen on Writing, War PoetryTHINKING ABOUT TONECHECKLIST: Writing About ToneTOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONESample Student Paper, Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”TERMS FOR REVIEWWORDS LITERAL MEANING: WHAT A POEM SAYS FIRSTWilliam Carlos Williams, This Is Just to SayDICTIONJohn Masefield, CargoesRobert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for YouTHE VALUE OF A DICTIONARYHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, AftermathSamuel Menashe, BreadCarl Sandburg, GrassJ. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies deadWORD CHOICE AND WORD ORDERRobert Herrick, Upon Julia’s ClothesKay Ryan, BlandeurThomas Hardy, The Ruined MaidRichard Eberhart, The Fury of Aerial BombardmentJulie Larios, What Bee DidWendy Cope, Lonely HeartsFOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDYSarah Cortez, AdamE. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how townAnonymous, Carnation MilkGina Valdés, English con SalsaWilliam Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I beholdWilliam Wordsworth, MutabilityLewis Carroll, JabberwockyWRITING EFFECTIVELYLewis Carroll on Writing, Humpty Dumpty Explicates “Jabberwocky”THINKING ABOUT DICTIONCHECKLIST: Writing About DictionTOPICS FOR WRITING ON WORD CHOICETERMS FOR REVIEWSAYING AND SUGGESTING DENOTATION AND CONNOTATIONWilliam Blake, LondonWallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock