The Story and Its Writer: an Introduction to Short Fiction

This book ought to be a standard text for Creative Writers. It has been revised several times, but the informed literary criticism, by critics whose specialism is, for example feminism, is genuinely helpful. No nascent burn-one's-bra, drivel! The stories are easy to read, though some stories convey a distancing, from the familiar contexts each reader, brings to it. But that is no disadvantage. It contains good works, by writers I'd never even heard of. So it's been a source to me of unique, otherwise inaccessible short stories, which are all worthy of inclusion. It also conveys a vibrant interest, in the U.S. in this so-of-our-time, short-story, genre! A uniquely worthwhile, and refreshing anthology. Stimulates interest, innately!

This anthology is an absolute treasure. It huge but well bound so won't fall apart. It not only has a great collection of stories but there's a short bio on each author and a section of reviews about various stories from other writers (all of them cross-referenced so you can find them easily within the book). There is also a collection of essays by some of the writers on how they approach writing. It must be a labour of love by Charters, the editor -- it's absolutely brilliant!

My teenage daughter reads non-stop which is great but I was getting really sick of hearing about all the twilight type books she was reading. I figured it may not be that easy to get her to read real literature after being exposed to that garbage so I got her this book I remember reading it in college for a class and I fell in love with some of the authors. The stories are short entertaining and presented in an easily digestible way. My daughter may still read bad books but at least she understands why those books are so reviled.