Teaching Stories: An Anthology on the Power of Learning and Literature

In this remarkable anthology, some of the world’s greatest writers provide a master class on the transformative power of learning and literature. Culled from a course developed by Pulitzer Prize—winning author Robert Coles for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Teaching Stories is an invaluable collection in which novelists, essayists, and poets “render school life in all its complexity and variety.”

Featuring writings by James Agee • Julia Alvarez • Charles Baxter • Raymond Carver • John Cheever • Anton Chekhov • Erik H. Erikson • Anna Freud • Thomas Hardy • Toni Morrison • Howard Nemerov • Flannery O’Connor • Tillie Olsen • Leo Tolstoy • Tobias Wolff • Richard Yates

Ideal for educators and students of all ages, Teaching Stories will inspire anyone who loves great writing.

A collection of short fiction, compiled by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Children of Crisis, explores the world of education, teaching, and learning in works by Julia Alvarez, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Anton Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Toni Morrison, Flannery O'Connor, Tobias Wolff, and other distinguished writers. Original.

ROBERT COLES is the author of many books, including the Pulitzer Prize—winning Children of Crisis. A professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in Massachusetts.

Challenges, ironies, possibilities: Gryphon / Charles Baxter. Doctor Jack-o'-lantern / Richard Yates. In the garden of the North American martyrs / Tobias Wolff. Are the peasant children to learn to write from us? Or, are we to learn from the peasant children? / Leo Tolstoy.September, the first day of school / Howard Nemerov — Evocation and observation: From Yo! / Julia Alvarez. The bus to St. James's / John Cheever. A classical student / Anton Chekhov. I stand here ironing / Tillie Olsen. Cathedral / Raymond Carver. The lame shall enter first / Flannery O'Connor — Class and race: From Jude the obscure / Thomas Hardy. The artificial nigger / Flannery O'Connor. From The bluest eye / Toni Morrison — Personal experience and commentary: From Let us now praise famous men / James Agee. A witness to public education / Robert Coles. Feeling for a story / Trevor B. Hall. The power of narrative / Ernest Patterson. Tolstoy teaching today's young Americans / Michael Coles — Remarks, Cotuit, Massachusetts, 1965 / Erik H. Erikson — Postlude: Remarks, New Haven, Connecticut 1971 / Anna Freud. From Teacher / Mark Edmundson.