I. INTRODUCTION.
CHINUA ACHEBE, NIGERIAN.
Dead Men's Path.
Author's Perspective: Achebe on Modern Africa as the Crossroads of Culture.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON, AMERICAN.
Hands.
Author's Perspective: Anderson on Words Not Plot Give Form to a Short Story.
MARGARET ATWOOD, CANADIAN.
Happy Endings.
Author's Perspective: Atwood on the Canadian Identity.
JAMES BALDWIN, AMERICAN.
Sonny's Blues.
Author's Perspective: Baldwin on Race and the African-American Writer.
JORGE LUIS BORGES, ARGENTINE.
The Garden of Forking Paths.
Author's Perspective: Borges on Literature as Experience.
ALBERT CAMUS, FRENCH, Born in Algeria.
The Guest.
Author's Perspective: Camus on Revolution and Repression in Algeria.
RAYMOND CARVER, AMERICAN.
Cathedral.
A Small Good Thing.
Author's Perspective: Carver on Commonplace but Precise Language.
WILLA CATHER, AMERICAN.
Paul's Case.
Author's Perspective: Cather on Art as the Process of Simplification.
JOHN CHEEVER, AMERICAN.
The Swimmer.
Author's Perspective: Cheever on Why I Write Short Stories.
ANTON CHEKHOV, RUSSIAN.
The Lady with the Pet Dog.
Misery.
Author's Perspective: Chekhov on Natural Description and “The Center of Gravity.”
KATE CHOPIN, AMERICAN.
The Storm.
The Story of an Hour.
Author's Perspective: Chopin on Her Writing Method.
SANDRA CISNEROS, AMERICAN.
Barbie-Q.
Author's Perspective: Cisneros on Style.
JOSEPH CONRAD, POLISH, Naturalized British.
The Secret Sharer.
Author's Perspective: Conrad on the Condition of Art.
STEPHEN CRANE, AMERICAN.
The Open Boat.
Author's Perspective: Crane on The Sinking of the Commodore.
RALPH ELLISON, AMERICAN.
A Party Down at the Square.
Author's Perspective: Ellison on Race and Fiction.
WILLIAM FAULKNER, AMERICAN.
Barn Burning.
A Rose for Emily.
Author's Perspective: Faulkner on The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, AMERICAN.
Babylon Revisited.
Author's Perspective: Fitzgerald on His Own Literary Aims.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, FRENCH.
A Simple Heart.
Author's Perspective: Flaubert on the Labor of Style.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, COLOMBIAN.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.
Author's Perspective: García Márquez on His Beginnings as a Writer.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860-1935), AMERICAN.
The Yellow Wallpaper.
Author's Perspective: Gilman on Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
NIKOLAI GOGOL, RUSSIAN.
The Overcoat.
Author's Perspective: Gogol on Realism.
NADINE GORDIMER, SOUTH AFRICAN.
A Company of Laughing Faces.
Author's Perspective: Gordimer on How the Short Story Differs from the Novel.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AMERICAN.
Young Goodman Brown.
The Birthmark.
Author's Perspective: Hawthorne on the Public Failure of His Early Stories.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, AMERICAN.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place.
Author's Perspective: Hemingway on One True Sentence.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, AMERICAN.
Sweat.
Author's Perspective: Hurston on Eatonville When You Look at It.
SHIRLEY JACKSON (1919-1965), AMERICAN.
The Lottery.
Author's Perspective: Jackson on the Public Reception of the Lottery.
HENRY JAMES, AMERICAN.
The Real Thing.
Author's Perspective: James on the Mirror of a Consciousness.
HA JIN, BORN IN CHINA, Resident American.
Saboteur.
Author's Perspective: Jin on sources of His Fiction.
JAMES JOYCE, IRISH.
The Dead.
Araby.
Author's Perspective: Joyce on Epiphanies.
FRANZ KAFKA, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN.
Before the Law.
The Metamorphosis.
Author's Perspective: Kafka on Discussing “The Metamorphosis.”
D. H. LAWRENCE, ENGLISH.
The Rocking-Horse Winner.
Odour of Chrysanthemums.
Author's Perspective: Lawrence on the Novel Is the Bright Book of Life.
URSULA K. LE GUIN, AMERICAN.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
Author's Perspective: Le Guin on “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”
DORIS LESSING, RHODESIAN, Naturalized British.
A Woman on a Roof.
Author's Perspective: Lessing on “My Beginnings as a Writer.”
JACK LONDON, AMERICAN.
To Build A Fire.
Author's Perspective: London Defending the Factuality of “To Build a Fire.”
KATHERINE MANSFIELD, NEW ZEALANDER.
The Garden-Party.
Miss Brill.
Author's Perspective: Mansfield on “The Garden-Party.”
BOBBIE ANN MASON, AMERICAN.
Shiloh .
Author's Perspective: Mason on Minimalist Fiction.
GUY DE MAUPASSANT, FRENCH.
The Necklace.
Author's Perspective: Maupassant on the Realist Method.
HERMAN MELVILLE, AMERICAN.
Bartleby, the Scrivener.
Author's Perspective: Melville on Hawthorne and American Literature.
YUKIO MISHIMA, JAPANESE.
Patriotism.
Author's Perspective: Mishima on the Japanese Code.
ALICE MUNRO, CANADIAN.
How I Met My Husband.
Author's Perspective: Munro on How I Write Short Stories.
JOYCE CAROL OATES, AMERICAN.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Author's Perspective: Oates on Productivity and the Critics.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR, AMERICAN.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
Revelation.
Author's Perspective: O'Connor on the Element of Suspense in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
EDGAR ALLAN POE, AMERICAN.
The Tell-Tale Heart.
The Fall of the House of Usher.
Author's Perspective: Poe on the Tale and Its Effect.
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER, AMERICAN.
Flowering Judas.
Author's Perspective: Porter on Writing Short Stories.
LESLIE MARMON SILKO, AMERICAN.
The Man to Send Rain Clouds.
Author's Perspective: Silko on the Basis of “The Man to Send Rain Clouds.”
ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, YIDDISH (born in Poland) Naturalized American.
Gimpel the Fool.
Author's Perspective: Singer on the Character of Gimpel.
LEO TOLSTOY, RUSSIAN.
The Death of Ivan Ilych.
Author's Perspective: Tolstoy on the Moral Responsibilities of Art.
JOHN UPDIKE, AMERICAN.
Separating.
Author's Perspective: Updike on Why Write?
ALICE WALKER, AMERICAN.
Everyday Use.
Author's Perspective: Walker on the Black Woman Writer in America.
EUDORA WELTY, AMERICAN.
Why I Live at the P.O.
Author's Perspective: Welty on the Plot of the Short Story.
EDITH WHARTON, AMERICAN.
Roman Fever.
Author's Perspective: Wharton on the Subject of Short Stories.
VIRGINIA WOOLF, ENGLISH.
A Haunted House.
Author's Perspective: Woolf on Women and Fiction.