English 90, Spring 2014: June 2014

Respond to one, two, or all three of the stories as a group. Any aspect of the individual stories or of the short-short form in general.

Procedure for Story Submission

1. Everyone must email me a complete short story—one that gets all the way to the end of the story—before class on Monday, 4/28. The story needs to be 10-20 pages, double-spaced (see below).

2. For those who are being workshopped on Wednesday, 4/30 (Lindsay and Lori), please bring 13 hard copies of your short story to class on Monday, 4/28.

3. Everyone else may continue to work on the first draft of their short stories after they email them to me. Hard copies of the stories should be submitted on the class period BEFORE your workshop date (if you don’t have a workshop date, it will be determined on Monday). Note: Email versions are not acceptable. Photocopies need to be ready to submit at the beginning of the class period.

4. Stories must include page numbers on every page. Please use Times New Roman font at 12-point. Please double-space. Double-sided pages are acceptable and encouraged. Your story should have a title. And, of course, staples (paper clips are fine as well).

SCHEDULE (AS OF 5/28)

(Note: asterisks [**] denote that the reading is not in the reader and will be distributed in class).

Week 1:

3/31 Intro and enrollment. Discuss Atwood, “Happy Endings”

4/2 What is a story? Discuss Annie Proulx, “The Blood Bay,” Jhumpa Lahiri, “A Temporary Matter.” Ex 1 due.

Week 2:

4/7 Story begins with Character. Chimamamnda Ngozi Adichie, “Birdsong,” Tobias Wolff, “ Bullet in the Brain".**

4/9 The Art of the Scene. Discuss Ernest Hemingway, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”; ZZ Packer, “Brownies.” “Ex 2 due.

Week 3:

4/14 Choosing Point of View. Discuss Peter Ho Davies, “The Hull Case”; Janet Frame, “Gorse is Not People”

4/16 Point of View II. George Saunders, “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” (link); James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues." Ex 3 due.

Week 4:

4/21” Dialogue is What Characters Do to Each Other.” Discuss James Salter, “Bangkok" **, Tom Kealey "From Bremerton"** and "Thieves I've Known." **.

4/23 Narration: Alice Munro, “Gravel"**. Writing lab. **11:59 p.m. First 5 pp. of story due by email***

Week 5:

4/28 Worlds Apart. Discuss TC Boyle, “The Relive Box” **; Haruki Murakami, "The Ice Man." **Story due**

4/30 Workshops 1&2 (Linsday and Lori).

Week 6:

5/5 Workshops 3&4 (Liu and Rosie). Discuss Robert Coover, “The Frog Prince" **.

5/7 Discuss Workshops 5&6 (Onisha and Pierce) .

Week 7:

5/12 Workshops 7 (Michelle). Discuss Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl,” Rick Moody, “Boys," Elizabeth Tallent, "Prowler."

5/14 Workshops 9&10 (Jessica Leena).

Week 8:

5/19 Workshop 11&12 (Roger and Annie) Discuss Gish Jen, “Who’s Irish?”

5/21 Workshop 13 & 8 (Jami and Caroline).

Week 9:

5/26 Memorial Day. No class.

5/28 Editing. Discuss Raymond Carver, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” “Beginners,” “ ‘Beginners,’ Edited,” “Rough Crossings.”

Week 10:

6/2 Visiting Writer Teddy Steinkellner, excerpt from "Trash Can Days," Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." Writing Exercise 4

6/4 John Cheever, "Reunion"**, Philip K Dick, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." **

Deadlines for revision (choose one):

--Friday, May 30th. Deadline for turning in revisions for conference on either 6/2 or 6/4 (there will be a sign-up sheet). Please email me the story.

--Monday, June 9th. Deadline for turning in your story if you don’t need feedback from me and would like extra time to work on your story.

English 90, Spring 2014

Monday, June 2, 2014

Responses to three short shorts: "Reunion," "The Other Wife," and "The Falling Girl"