The Contemporary American Short Story, Part I

Like the country itself, the American short story has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Reading from The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, we continue our journey into the art of the story as we explore a wide range of stories written between 1970 and 2020. The writers range from Pulitzer winners and bestsellers to less familiar story masters, including writers of color and Indigenous and first-generation voices. Participants read the stories in advance, then we discuss them within the context of their time (and our own), investigating individual and recurring aspects of each story, while always searching for unifying “American” themes.