Telling Stories An Anthology for Writers

by Oates, Joyce Carol

• ISBN13: 9780393971767
• ISBN10: 0393971767
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-10-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Oates's chapter introductions and afterword on the writing workshop offer students encouragement, advice, and exercises for honing their skills. As a teacher, Oates emphasizes the importance of reading widely with enthusiasm, pleasure, and purpose. Telling Stories reflects this emphasis, introducing students to a variety of models for their own writing and encouraging them to concentrate on details, revise often, make material their own, experiment with genre, and ultimately find their own voice. Edited by a contemporary master of the storyteller's art "who defines herself primarily as a friend of the text and a friend of the writer," Telling Stories is the perfect anthology for creative writing workshops and fiction classes and a wellspring of inspiration for any beginning writer. "The love of storytelling'”to hear stories, and to tell them'”is universal in our species. Those with an apparent talent for writing. . . are not of a special breed but simply mirror the common human desire. [If] you have a natural talent for writing, and a love of the imagination, you risk a lifelong deprivation if you fail to cultivate it as vigorously as you can. Write your own 'great American novel'. . . you're talented, you're intelligent, you have the driving passion, and you know as much as anyone about American life. Your story belongs uniquely to you." '”Joyce Carol Oates, from the Introduction

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Why We Write, Why We Read	xiii
I. MINIATURE NARRATIVES	1	(66)
Anton Chekhov
THE STUDENT	7	(4)
Franz Kafka
THE SIRENS	11	(1)
William Carlos Williams
THE USE OF FORCE	12	(4)
Katherine Mansfield
THE WIND BLOWS	16	(4)
Bruno Schulz
FATHER'S LAST ESCAPE	20	(4)
Jean Rhys
I USED TO LIVE HERE ONCE	24	(2)
Alberto Moravia
THE HOUSE OF THE CRIME	26	(6)
Tadeusz Borowski
THE SUPPER	32	(3)
Italo Calvino
CITIES & THE DEAD	35	(2)
CONTINUOUS CITIES	37	(2)
Nadine Gordimer
IS THERE NOWHERE ELSE WHERE WE CAN MEET?	39	(3)
James Wright
THE TURTLE OVERNIGHT	42	(1)
REGRET FOR A SPIDER WEB	43	(1)
Phyllis Koestenbaum
HARRIET FEIGENBAUM IS A SCULPTOR	44	(1)
James Tate
DISTANCE FROM LOVED ONES	45	(1)
Lydia Davis
COCKROACHES IN AUTUMN	46	(1)
Daniel Halpern
COFFEE	47	(2)
Ron Padgett
ADVICE TO YOUNG WRITERS	49	(1)
Peter Carey
THE LAST DAYS OF A FAMOUS MIME	50	(4)
Elizabeth Tallent
NO ONE'S A MYSTERY	54	(3)
Stuart Dybek
DEATH OF THE RIGHT FIELDER	57	(3)
Alan Lightman
14 MAY 1905 AND 15 MAY 1905	60	(4)
Ruth Behar
LA CORTADA	64	(3)
II. DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES	67	(20)
Joyce Carol Oates
LETHAL	71	(1)
Jane Martin
TWIRLER	72	(3)
August Wilson
TESTIMONIES	75	(6)
Emily Mann
STILL LIFE	81	(6)
III. EARLY STORIES	87	(90)
Franz Kafka
THE JUDGMENT	93	(9)
Ernest Hemingway
INDIAN CAMP	102	(4)
Dylan Thomas
THE BURNING BABY	106	(5)
Carson McCullers
WUNDERKIND	111	(11)
John Cheever
GOODBYE, MY BROTHER	122	(18)
John Updike
FRIENDS FROM PHILADELPHIA	140	(7)
Lorrie Moore
AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS: A GUIDE TO THE TENOR OF LOVE	147	(13)
Madison Smartt Bell
THE NAKED LADY	160	(5)
Pinckney Benedict
THE SUTTON PIE SAFE	165	(8)
Jonathan Ames
A PORTRAIT OF A FATHER	173	(4)
IV. THE ART AND THE CRAFT OF REVISION	177	(22)
James Joyce
THE SISTERS (1904)	183	(16)
THE SISTERS (1914)	192	(7)
V. RE-VISIONS: REAPPROPRIATIONS	199	(42)
Hebrew Bible
GENESIS 19	203	(3)
Alicia Ostriker
THE CAVE	206	(3)
Ovid
THE STORY OF HERCULES, NESSUS, AND DEIANIRA	209	(6)
C. K. Williams
HERCULES, DEIANIRA, NESSUS	215	(3)
Ovid
THE STORY OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS	218	(3)
Harlan Ellison
FEVER	221	(1)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
LITTLE RED - CAP	222	(3)
Angela Carter
THE WEREWOLF	225	(2)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
LITTLE SNOW - WHITE	227	(8)
Anne Sexton
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS	235	(6)
VI. NARRATIVE IN OTHER MODES	241	(144)
Memoir, Diary, Personal Document	245	(54)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
FROM THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS (1845)	246	(4)
Henry David Thoreau
FROM THE JOURNAL (MAY 1853-OCTOBER 1857)	250	(3)
Virginia Woolf
FROM THE DIARY (FEBRUARY-MARCH 1930)	253	(8)
MOMENTS OF BEING	261	(3)
Richard Wright
AMERICAN HUNGER	264	(9)
Zora Neale Hurston
HOW IT FEELS TO BE COLORED ME	273	(4)
Jorge Luis Borges
BORGES AND I	277	(1)
M. F. K. Fisher
THOSE WHO MUST JUMP	278	(3)
Jack Kerouac
PASSING THROUGH TANGIERS	281	(4)
Maxine Hong Kingston
NO NAME WOMAN	285	(10)
John Updike
UPDIKE AND I	295	(2)
Mikal Gilmore
THE DREAM	297	(2)
Poems That Tell Stories	299	(86)
Homer
ODYSSEUS BLINDS THE CYCLOPS	300	(11)
Ovid
THE STORY OF ACTAEON	311	(4)
Robert Frost
HOME BURIAL	315	(3)
James Dickey
CHERRYLOG ROAD	318	(4)
Raymond Carver
THE CAR	322	(2)
Maxine Kumin
400 - METER FREESTYLE	324	(2)
Annie Dillard
EMERGENCIES	326	(6)
Jana Harris
CATTLE - KILLING WINTER, 1889-90	332	(4)
AVALANCHE	336	(3)
Tom Wayman
VIOLENCE	339	(2)
Erika Funkhouser
SURE SHOT	341	(12)
Jon Davis
TESTIMONY	353	(2)
Robert Phillips
AFTER THE FACT: TO TED BUNDY	355	(3)
Gary Soto
TARGET PRACTICE	358	(2)
THE LEVEE	360	(2)
THE TREES THAT CHANGE OUR LIVES	362	(2)
THE WRESTLER'S HEART	364	(3)
Carlos Cumpian
WHEN JESUS WALKED	367	(3)
Chase Twichell
AISLE OF DOGS	370	(2)
Li-Young Lee
THE CLEAVING	372	(9)
Joy Harjo
THE FLOOD	381	(4)
VII. GENRE: HORROR	385	(40)
H. P. Lovecraft
THE RATS IN THE WALLS	389	(16)
Stephen King
THE MAN IN THE BLACK SUIT	405	(20)
VIII. CLASSICS AND CONTEMPORARIES	425	(280)
D. H. Lawrence
TICKETS, PLEASE	429	(11)
Katherine Mansfield
SUN AND MOON	440	(6)
William Faulkner
THAT EVENING SUN	446	(15)
Flannery O'Connor
A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST	461	(11)
Grace Paley
ANXIETY	472	(3)
Donald Barthelme
THE BALLOON	475	(5)
E. L. Doctorow
THE WRITER IN THE FAMILY	480	(11)
Raymond Carver
WHY DON'T YOU DANCE?	491	(5)
Margaret Atwood
THE MAN FROM MARS	496	(18)
Bharati Mukherjee
JASMINE	514	(9)
Tobias Wolff
SISTER	523	(6)
Richard Ford
COMMUNIST	529	(14)
William Heyen
ANY SPORT	543	(8)
Robert Taylor, Jr.
MOURNING	551	(8)
Toni Cade Bambara
MY MAN BOVANNE	559	(5)
C. E. Poverman
CUTTER	564	(19)
T. Coraghessan Boyle
I DATED JANE AUSTEN	583	(5)
Ian Frazier
DATING YOUR MOM	588	(2)
Richard Bausch
AREN'T YOU HAPPY FOR ME?	590	(12)
Jamaica Kincaid
MY MOTHER	602	(5)
Abby Frucht
FRUIT OF THE MONTH	607	(9)
John Edgar Wideman
DAMBALLAH	616	(8)
Jewel Mogan
X AND O	624	(4)
Helena Maria Viramontes
THE MOTHS	628	(5)
Edward P. Jones
YOUNG LIONS	633	(17)
David Leavitt
GRAVITY	650	(4)
Russell Banks
JUST DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING	654	(9)
Gish Jen
IN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY	663	(13)
Thom Jones
THE PUGILIST AT REST	676	(15)
Joyce Carol Oates
FAMILY	691	(14)
AFTERWORD: The Practice of Writing--The Writing Workshop	705	(5)
Notes on Authors	710	(13)
Permissions Acknowledgments	723	(7)
Index	730