INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING * ENGLISH 206
Kenan * Fall 2012
Critical Analysis & Presentation
Due October 9-23
(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
Requirements:
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Cover the basic biographical information of the author. Be certain to use at least two
sources. Please document sources properly. (No web sources allowed here.)
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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 between 10-15 minutes, using
any media available. You are encouraged to use Power Point, 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, September
24th. Please send no submissions before midnight of that date; i.e., you
may begin sending your emails on the night of Sunday the 23rd after 12am.
A list of everyone’s choices will be provided in class on the 25th. (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 on the date of presentation.
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)
James Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man
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
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Jennine Capo Crucet, How to Leave Hialeah
Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap or Nice Big American Baby
Jennine Capó Crucet, How to Leave Hialeah
Junot Diaz, Drown
Andre Dubus, Selected Stories (or any Dubus collection)
Tony Earley,
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
Alice Munro, Runaway (or any Munro 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
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
Michael Parker,
Jayne Anne Phillips, Black Tickets
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
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)
Any substitutions must be vetted and approved by instructor.
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REMEMBER: THIS PROJECT WILL CONSTITUTE 1/4th OF YOUR FINAL
GRADE.
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