INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING * ENGLISH 206
Kenan * Spring 2014
Critical Analysis & Presentation
Due March 4 – March 20)
(See schedule)
PROJECT: You will select a short story collection from the list provided and
produce two short papers, one longer craft paper and give a live presentation for the
class.
Specifically you will be responsible for:
1. Biographical essay (150-250 words)
2. Summary of at least three short stories from the collection. (150-250 words)
3. Craft analysis (1250 words)
4. Presentation
5. Test on all presentations
Requirements:
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Cover the basic biographical information of the author. Be certain to use at least two
sources. Please document sources properly. (NOTA BENE: Wikipedia cannot be used
as a source.)
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Please use MLA standard notation
(See: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ )
SUMMARY
Give a brief summary of at least three stories from the collection. Focus on plot and
character.
CRAFT ANALYSIS
This third paper should be no shorter than 1250 words. Focus on at least three or four
stories. Be sure to use quotations from the stories as examples to support your
arguments and observations.
Craft Paper should cover:
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Language analysis
o Sentences
o Word choice
o Diction & tone
Characterization
Sense of place
Use of Point of View
Use of Dialogue
Summation
PRESENTATION
The presentation to class should be a lively synthesis of your work on the author and
stories. First remember the goal of your presentation is to educate and to excite
interest in your subject. Class presentations should be no longer than 10 minutes,
using any media available. You are encouraged to use Power Point, Prezi, hand-outs,
photographs, videos, and whatever other media seem appropriate.
SCHEDULE:
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Please submit your top three selections by email on Monday, February
17th. Please send no submissions before midnight of that date; i.e., you
may begin sending your emails on the night of Sunday the 16th after 12am.
A list of everyone’s choices will be provided in class on the 18th. (There will
be no more than two presentations per author.)
A schedule will be provided with your specific due dates for presentations.
Hard copies of the three papers will be due to instructor on the date of
presentation. And digital copies of all papers should be made available on
the class website, in the appropriate space, by the end of the day of
presentation.
The entire class will be tested on the entirety of presentations. Your full
attention will be required. All papers will be made available to all on
website for review.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:
Please choose a collection from the following writers below selected from among the
most accomplished contemporary short stories writers:
Isabel Allende, The Stories of Eva Luna (or any other Allende collection)
Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard’s Egg (or any Atwood collection)
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James Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man
Richard, Bausch, Something is Out There, or The Stories of Richard Bausch
Doris Betts, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Amy Bloom, Come to Me (or any other Bloom collection)
Robert Boswell, Dancing in the Movies (or any other Boswell collection)
T. Coraghessan Boyle, If the River Was Whiskey (or any Boyle collection)
Harold Brodkey, Stories in an Almost Classical Mode or First Love and Other Sorrows
Larry Brown, Facing the Music, or Big Bad Love
Jennine Capo Crucet, How to Leave Hialeah
Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap or Nice Big American Baby
Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories, or A Tree of Night
Jennine Capó Crucet, How to Leave Hialeah
John Cheever, The World of Apples (or any other Cheever collection)
Junot Diaz, Drown or This is How You Lose Her
Andre Dubus, Selected Stories (or any Dubus collection)
Tony Earley, Here We are in Paradise
Danielle Evans, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
Ben Fountain, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara
Carlos Fuentes, Burnt Water (or any Fuentes collection)
Mavis Gallant, Varieties of Exile (or any Gallant collection)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Innocent Erendira and Other Stories
(or any Garcia Marquez story collection)
Allan Gurganus, White People
Alice Hoffman, Blackbird House
A. M. Homes, The Safety of Objects
Charles Johnson, The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales and Conjurations
Denis Johnson, Jesus’s Son
Edward P. Jones, All Aunt Hagar’s Children or Lost in the City
David Leavitt, Family Dancing (or and Leavitt collection)
William Henry Lewis, I Got Somebody in Staunton, or, In the Arms of Our Elders
Clarice Lispector, Soulstorm (Or any Lispector collection)
James Allan McPherson, Elbow Room; or, Hue and Cry
Jill McCorkle, Creatures of Habit (or any McCorkle collection)
Yukio Mishima, Death in Midsummer and other Stories
Bharti Mukherjee, The Middleman and other Stories
Alice Munro, Runaway (or any Munro collection)
Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place
Antonya Nelson, Female Trouble (or any Nelson collection)
Lori Osland, The Bigness of the World
Z. Z. Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Breece d’J Pancake, The Stories of Breece d’J Pancake
Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, The Little Disturbances of Man,
Later the Same Day (or The Collected Stories)
Michael Parker, Don’t Make Me Stop Now
Jayne Anne Phillips, Black Tickets
Nic Pizzolatto, Between Here and the Yellow Sea
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Christine Schutt, Florida
Elizabeth Spencer, The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales,
or The Southern Woman
Lee Smith, Cakewalk, or Me and My Baby View the Eclipse, or News of the Spirit
Max Steele, The Hat of My Mother
Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
William Trevor, any collection
David Vann, The Legend of A Suicide
Alice Walker, In Love and Trouble, or It’s Hard to Keep a Good Woman Down
David Foster Wallace, The Girl with Curious Hair (or any Wallace collection)
John Edgar Wideman, Fever (or any Wideman collection)
Richard Yates, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (or any Yates collection)
Any substitutions must be vetted and approved by instructor.
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REMEMBER: THIS PROJECT (PAPERS, PRESENTATION, TEST) WILL
CONSTITUTE 1/5th (20%) OF YOUR FINAL GRADE.
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