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Short
Story Anthologies
Sanyat
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Stories We Tell
Wendy Martin (Editor)
Pantheon; April 2004
This follow-up
to the well-received anthology We Are the Stories We Tell
(1990) explores the lives of women in the latter half of the
twentieth century. The two dozen stories gathered here are
written by an interesting and powerful group of contemporary
female writers. It is up to the reader to decide whether or
not, collectively, these voices speak to all women in modern
times, but there is no doubt that the characters in these
stories make up a broad group both ethnically and socially.
Writers are well known and well regarded and include Jamaica
Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, Grace Paley, and Louise Erdrich.
The flow from one story to another is gentle, clearly a result
of thoughtful editing. Fans of the short story will find some
favourites, like Ellen Gilchrist's "Light Can Be Both
Wave and Particle" and Toni Cade Bambara's "The
Lesson," as well as some interesting and unexpected choices,
such as Gish Jen's "Who's Irish?" This is an excellent
anthology, one to read and reread many times.
Crafting
the Very Short Story: An Anthology of 100 Masterpieces
Mark Mills (Editor)
Prentice Hall; June 2002
This
outstanding anthology is comprised of acclaimed authors from
diverse cultures and both genders. Organised alphabetically
and stylistically, this volume's avant-garde fiction features
numerous genres and serves as an excellent introduction to
the authors' longer works. The first-person and commentary
essays by distinguished writers and scholars appear immediately
after their corresponding stories. The text includes writing
instruction, exercises, a glossary of literary terms, scholarly
commentary, key stylistic elements alongside stories included
in the collection. The rich variety of narratives and the
overall reader-friendly structure make this compendium an
essential tool for teaching fiction and crafting the very
short story.
The
Anchor Book of New American Short Stories
Ben Marcus (Editor)
Anchor; August 2004
ISBN: 1400034825
"Writers
are reaffirming tradition, ignoring it, or subverting it,"
Marcus notes in the introduction to this wide-ranging collection
of stories from contemporary writers. Including writers such
as Rick Bass, David Foster Wallace, and A. M. Homes, Marcus
has collected quite a diverse group of talented authors. Jhumpa
Lahiri's offering, "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dinner,"
from her acclaimed collection The Interpreter of Maladies
(1999), is the story of a how a young girl is deeply affected
by Mr. Pirzada, a friend of her parents, and his separation
from his wife and seven daughters, who are caught in the middle
of the Indian-Pakistani conflict. In Lydia Davis' "The
Old Dictionary," the narrator realises she handles a
delicate old dictionary more carefully than her own young
son. In Stephen Dixon's "Down the Road," a man tries
to carry his lover when they both can barely continue their
long journey. Different readers will likely prefer some selections
to others, but all will have to agree that Marcus has collected
a respectable sampling of some of today's finest writers.
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