Great American Short Stories: A Guide for Writers and Readers
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer Cognard-Black
About this listen
While short stories exist in traditions all over the world, American short stories are a genre all their own. Emerging from the clash of cultures - and the collision of oral and print traditions - that began during the arrival of European settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries, the short works that emerged have served many functions. They have entertained, certainly, but they have also helped foster identity, shape morality, and build the foundations of the American mythos for nearly four centuries.
Whether you want to write short stories, simply want better insight as a reader, or even if you are looking for a new lens through which to view American history, the 24 rich and informative lectures of Great American Short Stories: A Guide for Writers and Readers will show you the ins and outs of this infinitely adaptable - and intrinsically American - literary form. Professor Jennifer Cognard-Black of St. Mary’s College of Maryland guides you through the technical aspects of the short story, while also digging deep into the history of the form in the United States. Along the way, you will discover why the short story became so deeply connected to American identity and how it continues to evolve alongside the nation itself.
The “great American novel” is often the lofty goal of writers who want to achieve literary immortality. But from the opening sentence to the lingering denouement, American short stories can both capture the world as it is and help envision what could be. Each is unique, and yet each is a part of a larger chronicle: the story of America.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
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Same Material Different Title
- By rkeinc on 09-21-14
By: Steven Novella, and others
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Classic American Short Stories, Volume 1
- By: William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Edith Wharton, and others
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Unlike the other arts, American literature has been a powerful, influential, and leading aspect of American culture. By turns sedate and mercurial and possessing a moral mind set of various social values, the American short story reveals in its pages the psyche of a growing, sprawling nation whose sense of destiny has always been larger than life. Here are seven masterpieces that will make you smile, make you frown, and leave you pondering the mystery that surrounds the soul of a great nation.
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Beautifully performed!
- By James on 07-08-05
By: William Faulkner, and others
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The Best American Short Stories 2023
- By: Min Jin Lee, Heidi Pitlor
- Narrated by: Laura Copland, Jeena Yi, Pascale Armand, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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“Without stories, we cannot live well,” shares guest editor Min Jin Lee, describing how storytelling affects and nurtures readers. The Best American Short Stories 2023 features twenty pieces of short fiction that reflect a world full of fractured relationships, but also wondrous hope. A lifelong friendship may become a casualty of the Russia-Ukraine war. Rejected by his lover, a man seeks to reconcile with his family. Twitter users miraculously muster enough empathy to help a lost cat find a forever home.
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Another Great Year of Shorts
- By Michael on 01-18-24
By: Min Jin Lee, and others
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50 Greatest Short Stories
- By: Terry O'Brien - editor, Terry O'Brien - introduction
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Deepti Gupta
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Selected from the best of the world's short fiction, 50 Great Short Stories brings together writings by great masters of the genre. Carefully picked for their timeless quality, listeners are sure to be delighted by the inclusion of such favourites as 'The Gift of the Magi', 'The Lady with the Dog', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Rain' and 'Mrs Packletide's Tiger', to name but a few.
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Very Disappointed
- By Nicole Singer on 12-14-18
By: Terry O'Brien - editor, and others
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Stein on Writing
- A Master Editor Shares His Craft, Techniques, and Strategies
- By: Sol Stein
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions, how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place."
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Excellent advice and examples for better writing.
- By Jane on 06-22-12
By: Sol Stein
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The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story
- By: John Freeman - editor
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the past 50 years, the American short story has changed dramatically. New voices, forms, and mixtures of genres have brought this unique US genre a thrilling burst of energy. This rich anthology celebrates this avalanche of talent. Beginning in 1970, it culls together a half century of powerful American short stories from all genres, including - for the first time in a literary anthology - science fiction, horror, and fantasy.
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Too dark for my taste
- By Lazy Chicken on 10-03-22
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Food: A Cultural Culinary History
- By: Ken Albala, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ken Albala
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
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One of my top 3 favorite courses!
- By Jessica on 12-28-13
By: Ken Albala, and others
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American Monsters
- By: Adam Jortner, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Adam Jortner
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
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Grab a flashlight and go monster-hunting in the safe company of Adam Jortner, award-winning professor of religion at Auburn University. You’ll encounter chilling tales of living houses, sentient plants, psychotic toys, brain-eating zombies, and otherworldly beings whose mere name is enough to drive people insane. Along the way, you’ll learn how monster stories change how Americans think and what Americans do, how they shape the history of our country, and what secrets about human nature these inhuman monsters can share.
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Great entertaining listen
- By lindsayb on 06-22-21
By: Adam Jortner, and others
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Writing Creative Nonfiction
- By: Tilar J J. Mazzeo, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Tilar J J. Mazzeo
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Bringing together the imaginative strategies of fiction storytelling and new ways of narrating true, real-life events, creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing part of the creative writing world. It's a cutting-edge genre that's reshaping how we write (and read) everything from biographies and memoirs to blogs and public speaking scripts to personal essays and magazine articles.
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Not what I expected but useful
- By Nancy on 04-14-14
By: Tilar J J. Mazzeo, and others
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Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Horror
- By: Mark Canada, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Canada
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Original Recording
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Through these 10 lectures, you will delve into the darkness of Poe’s most nightmarish stories, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. You’ll also learn how he invented the detective story and explored themes of love and loss in such poems as “Ulalume” and “Annabel Lee”. And you’ll discover how Poe employed symbolism, imagery, rhythm and rhyme, irony and paradox, repetition, simile, and foreshadowing to create a unique body of work.
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Interesting but not what I was expecting
- By Red-Haired Ash on 03-24-21
By: Mark Canada, and others
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The Everyday Guide to Wine
- By: Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Original Recording
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Every time you open a bottle of wine, you embark on a journey through a world of sensations. Yet for all its pleasurable qualities, wine can be bewildering in its mystery and complexity. Unlocking the secrets of wine is the key to heightening your appreciation of this rewarding experience. Whether you’re a novice looking to master the basics, an enthusiast who tours vineyards, or something in between, there’s no better way to learn about wine than from a wine expert.
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Please do more wine education!
- By JD on 02-13-20
By: Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, and others
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Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature
- By: Pamela Bedore, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Pamela Bedore
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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Can literature change our real world society? At its foundation, utopian and dystopian fiction asks a few seemingly simple questions aimed at doing just that. Who are we as a society? Who do we want to be? Who are we afraid we might become? When these questions are framed in the speculative versions of Heaven and Hell on earth, you won't find easy answers, but you will find tremendously insightful and often entertaining perspectives.
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A very enjoyable and educational audiobook
- By NH on 04-06-17
By: Pamela Bedore, and others
What listeners say about Great American Short Stories: A Guide for Writers and Readers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frank Rizzo
- 02-19-22
Pleasantly surprised!
This is a great review of the American short stories. It is also chuck full of advice on how to write them. Two thumbs up!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kathy Heckathorn
- 03-31-22
A+
This class is a comprehensive look at how to understand, enjoy, and create short stories, with an emphasis on what makes an American short story. The exercises are relevant and illuminate the curriculum. As usual, The Great Courses are great. Get this one today.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Karl Anderson
- 10-19-22
I wanted to learn, but...
Lectures are weighed down by the non-stop brow beating with cartoonish social justice pandering and guilt ridden virtue trumpeting. It made me feel pity for this seemingly sincere professor and her obsequious cult behavior. A tough slog for the uninfected.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kat Cat
- 07-25-23
Mostly for writers. Solid advice. Not 'woke.'
I am perplexed by the reviews dismissing this lecture set as "woke." Frankly, I have no idea what they're talking about. When "woke" is used to criticize, it generally refers to a heavy-handed and often misguided brand of social commentary based on identity politics, where various groups of people are thought to be locked in an irreconcilable conflict of privilege and victimhood. Nothing like that is found in these lectures. Seriously -- nothing! The lecturer does not use the jargon of identity politics, and at no point does she posit that conflict between groups of people is irreconcilable or inevitable. She does, however, discuss a few literary works that address discrimination, injustice, and other tragic situations at various points in US history. Is this what has offended the anti-woke reviewers? If so, I struggle to imagine what they would consider acceptable, because these are topics that have been addressed by all serious literature in all modern cultures. If that is "woke," then so are Dostoyevsky, Dickens, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Chekhov, Victor Hugo, and William Blake. What on Earth do these people read?! If anything, the lectures are decidedly unwoke in at least once way: the lecturer actively encourages us to write from the point of view of other people about situations and experiences that we have not ourselves gone through and can only have an outsider's perspective on. Critics from the social justice school tend to frown on this, believing that people really only have the right to write from their own point of view about their own experiences. Maybe that view is unhelpfully restrictive, but if we do set out to tell other people's stories, surely we have an obligation to at least be respectful and accurate. Inhabiting someone else's point of view is a delicate matter that needs careful consideration, especially if we hope to publish our work. The lecturer never brought this up, and she probably should have.
As for the lectures themselves -- I enjoyed them, but they are much more about writing than about the history of literature. A more apt title would be "How to Write Short Stories, with Examples from American Literature." When the lecturer was discussing various authors and stories, I felt like she was doing so more to illustrate her points about writing than for the works' own sake. The lectures are also heavily coloured by her subjective tastes and opinions, but that's always going to be the case in a creative writing course (or any art technique course, for that matter). If you are a creative writer, though, these lectures are well worth a listen. There are a lot of inspiring and thought-provoking points. Her way of telling stories is not the only way, but it's definitely a way that's worth exploring.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael C.
- 06-03-21
-sigh-
Polite applause for the craft, torn by obnoxious claps of wokeism. Very trite and nacissistic.
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15 people found this helpful