Featured Stories

In Search of Epifano

In Search of Epifano: Short story by Rudolfo AnayaIn this story by Rudolfo Anaya, an eighty-year-old woman leaves her loveless marriage and unfulfilling life in California behind to follow her passion (painting) and search for her familial, ethnic and spiritual roots in the Mexican desert. She journeys to the abandoned ranch of her great-grandfather Epifano, who she believes is calling her in her dreams. As she overlooks the ruins of his hacienda, a tall Indian with Epifano’s eyes guides her through an ancient ceremony in which her moan of love is like a new life as a blinding flash fills her body. Themes include heritage, identity, emptiness, epiphany.

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Meeting Mrinal

Meeting Mrinal: Novelette by Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniIn this story by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an Indian-American woman struggles to come to terms with the failure of her arranged marriage and her Americanized teenage son’s increasing withdrawal. After an unexpected visit from her closest childhood friend and rival, now a highly successful single businesswoman, she realizes that, despite the different directions their lives have taken, both have ended up lonely and disillusioned. Fortunately, after considering suicide, she recognizes that no life is perfect and decides to face up to her problems. Themes include cultural conflict, gender roles, arranged marriages, identity, generation gap, single motherhood, rivalry, pride, loneliness, disillusionment.

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My Sweet Sixteenth

My Sweet Sixteenth: Short story by Brenda WilkinsonIn this story by Brenda Wilkinson, a school friend helps a young a girl deliver her baby in her upstairs bedroom while a house-full of guests celebrate her “Sweet Sixteenth” birthday downstairs. The baby’s father wanted her to keep it; she wanted a termination but waited too long. The next morning, she secretly takes the baby to a hospital, claiming she found it on the street. Fortunately, the truth comes out and the prospect of family shame encourages her to keep the child, which she now loves. Themes include naivety, choices and consequences, deception, abortion, friendship, social image, and motherhood.

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Short story by Ambrose BierceThis Ambrose Bierce story contains some of the best descriptive language in American literature… so much so that most people will need to read the passage at least twice in order to properly appreciate it. All I can say about the plot without spoiling the experience for those who haven’t read it is that the surprise ending usually sticks in reader’s minds for some time. The major themes: sense of duty; love and sacrifice; the brutality of war; confronting death; near-death experiences; and time (the length of a moment) as reflected in the personification metaphor time stood still.

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Three Girls

Three Girls: Short story by Joyce Carol OatesIn this story by Joyce Carol Oates a woman recalls when, as a college student, she and a fellow girl-poet encountered a woman they believed to be a heavily disguised Marilyn Monroe browsing in a used bookstore. Torn between acknowledging the woman and protecting her privacy, they choose the latter. “Marilyn” gives them a book as a memento and leaves. For the girls, who are coming to grips with their sexuality and mutual attraction against social norms of the time, the shared experience triggers a first kiss. Themes include identity, gender norms, sexuality, passion, courage, stereotypes.

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Jim Baker’s Blue Jay Yarn

Jim Baker's Blue Jay Yarn: Short story by Mark TwainIn this story by Mark Twain, a man who says he can understand the language of animals relates a tall tale about a misguided but determined blue jay that accidentally drops an acorn into a knothole in the roof of a derelict house. When he looks through the hole and can’t see the acorn, he decides to fill it. The bird’s diligent but futile efforts attract thousands of other jays which stand idly by and, when the truth of the “endless hole” is finally revealed, mock him for his foolishness. Themes include language, folly, obsession, misguided persistence, social behavior.

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A Woman on the Roof

A Woman on the Roof: Short story by Doris LessingIn this story by Doris Lessing, three construction workers repairing the roof of an apartment building become obsessed by a woman who sunbathes in a bikini on a nearby rooftop. The three make demeaning catcalls and become increasingly frustrated as the woman constantly ignores them. Two are enraged by her indifference while the third, seventeen and inexperienced, develops romantic fantasies about the woman. When the younger one decides to “make her acquaintance” and learns that his feelings are not reciprocated, his passion morphs into hatred. Themes include lust, objectification of women, sexual harassment, gender roles, social class, group dynamics.

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Filboid Studge

Filboid Studge: Short story by H. H. Munro (Saki)This story is from Saki is a spoof on modern advertising. A businessman who had invested all his money into a failed breakfast food requests help from an impoverished artist who wants to marry his daughter. The artist gives the product an unappetising name and promotes it with a poster of celebrities in Hell clamouring for the unpalatable dish “they cannot buy now”. Sales take off, and the businessman sells the company and marries his daughter to someone a “vast deal higher” than the hapless artist. Themes include despair, the power of advertising, branding (appeal to duty/guilt), social class, ingratitude/betrayal.

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