This month's story, Lorrie Moore's “How to Become a Writer,” has as its ancillary title “Or, Have You Earned This Cliché?” Unpacking the title seems like a good way to start examining this wry, ironic, yet surprisingly tender little story. While it might pose as a how-to manual of sorts, written in the second person
Our last story of the 2014-2015 cycle is Norman Mailer's “The Language of Men,” published in Esquire magazine in 1953. This story closes not only our annual cycle, but also the sub-cycle of our last three texts, all of which (starting with Twain's “The Californian's Tale” and continuing on with Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants”)
This month's story is Mark Twain's “The Californian's Tale,” published in 1893. Twain rates among the most celebrated and iconic of all American writers, and has achieved that rarified air of an author whose characters (Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer in particular) have come to embody the mythos of the country they reflect. with his
March's story is “Paul's Case” (1905) by Willa Cather. Cather is best known for her novels My Ántonia (1918) and O Pioneers! (1913), works which chronicle the lives of European settlers on the American frontier, in particular the prairies of Nebraska. Cather grew up in Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1895,
New session of the English reading club "English Reading Circle" with Andrew Bennett as moderator. To learn about contemporary American literature through the reading and discussion of short stories online. The meetings will take place in the library one Tuesday a month from 14:30 p.m. to 15:30 p.m. from september to
This month's story, William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” first published in 1930, is a defining example of Southern Gothic writing. It is also the first Faulkner story ever published in a national magazine. For those of you familiar with Faulkner's work, the story takes place in the fictional city of Jefferson, Mississippi, in the
Hello everyone, and Happy New Year. We begin 2015 with Richard Yates' O Joseph, I'm So Tired, taken from his aptly titled collection Liars In Love, published in 1981. You might be familiar with Yates by way of his novels, like The Easter Parade, or perhaps Revolutionary Road, likely his most well-known work. this story
New session of the English reading club "English Reading Circle" with Andrew Bennett as moderator. To learn about contemporary American literature through the reading and discussion of short stories online. The meetings will take place in the library one Tuesday a month from 14:30 p.m. to 15:30 p.m. from september to
Our story for December, Truman Capote's “Miriam” (1945), is disquietingly similar to our story from November, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Once again, we, as readers, are invited into an uncomfortable space inhabited by characters who may or may not be figments of the imagination. Once again, we become witnesses to the ways in
New session of the English reading club "English Reading Circle" with Chiara Luis as moderator. To learn about contemporary American literature through the reading and discussion of short stories online. The meetings will take place in the library one Tuesday a month from 14:30 p.m. to 15:30 p.m. from september to