ISHU 4120 examines the American short story from the perspective of both reader and writer. Students will read short stories representing the best of the last two hundred years of American literature; they will write short informal responses as well as three critical essays. Authors will include Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Amy Tan, and others. Students will also compose short creative exercises designed to lead toward writing a full-length short story. Classes will consist of lectures, discussions, in-class writing, and workshop discussion of student works.