Short Stories
Short Stories: Study Materials,
Teaching Materials, and Links
The materials below are intended to introduce students to a wide variety of short stories and help them learn how to process style and meaning. For readers looking for a good anthology of short stories, I recommend The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. For younger readers, Read All About It! is a good choice. The Story and Its Writer, which has been through many editions over the years, was used in a college course I took and introduced me to a number of my favorite short stories.
Featured authors (click to jump down the page):
| Bradbury, Ray | Dubus, Andre | Hughes, Langston | Joyce, James |
| Sleator, William | Tan, Amy |
Bradbury, Ray
“All Summer in a Day” (included in The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology)
Dubus, Andre
“The Curse” (included in Selected Stories)
Hughes, Langston
“Thank You, Ma’am” (included in Read All About It!)
- “Thank You, Ma’am”: Discussion Questions and Writing Assignment
- Notes on “Thank You, Ma’am” Discussion Questions*
Joyce, James
“Clay” (from Dubliners)
Sleator, William
“The Elevator” (included in Read All About It!)
- “The Elevator”: Discussion Questions and Writing Assignment
- Notes on “The Elevator” Discussion Questions*
Tan, Amy
“Two Kinds” (an excerpt from Amy Tan’s popular novel The Joy Luck Club)
* Sorry, this document is not yet available—Eventually I plan to write out answers for all of my study questions, excerpts, quote ID quizzes, and similar materials, but because of the many other demands on my time, this process is quite slow. Feel free to e-mail me if there is a specific one you would like me to put up on the site, and I’ll do my best to finish it quickly.
