This semester, I am teaching a literature and composition course centered around short stories collections. For this course, I chose writers specific to the region where we are located in Appalachia, with one obvious outlier from Louisiana. Students read Frank Yerby, Ernest Gaines, Crystal Wilkinson, Dorothy Allison, and Ron Rash. As I worked on the syllabus for this course, I kept thinking about the final assignment. Since it is a composition class, I wanted to have an essay, but I also wanted to so something a little different. I’ve done unessay projects in this course, but since we were doing short stories, I decided to have students compile a small short story collection, write an introduction for the collection, then write a reflective essay on the process.

One of the main aspects of this assignment is that students must have five stories in their anthology. Three of the stories must be ones that they read in class and two must be stories that they have not read in class but connect thematically, stylistically, historically, or in other ways with the stories they read in class. Since most of my students do not have a firm background in literature, I have been, over the course of the semester, compiling a list of possible stories for students to read and add to their anthologies. You can find that list following the description of the assignment.

In my courses, I stress the importance of making connections between texts, authors, themes, history, and more. I reiterate, again and again, the importance of weaving these threads together, and inevitably each class discussion moves us backwards to earlier texts we have read in the semester, building these thematic, stylistic, and regional bridges across time and space. As well, I want students to realize what they do in class connects to their other classes. This assignment serves, in may ways, as a way to have students think in this manner, to get them to create links where they may have never thought of them before. I am not sure how this assignment will turn out, or if they will totally grasp this, but I am excited to see what they come up with for the assignment.

Assignment Description

Format — You must use MLA format for this essay. That means double spaced, one inch margins, works cited pages, and correct in text citations.

Introduction — Over the course of this semester, we have read five short story collections from Frank Yerby, Ernest Gaines, Crystal Wilkinson, Dorothy Allison, and Ron Rash. Some of these collections contain an overarching theme or progression, like Gaines’ Bloodline. Others connect to one another more loosely, like Allison’s Trash. However, each collection is constructed to convey specific ideas and to convey specific emotions. This is what short story collections do.

When an editor compiles short stories, from different authors, into a collection, it is called an anthology. Typically, the editor will write a brief introduction discussing the anthology and why they chose the stories that they chose for the collection. They may have chosen the stories based on region, theme, style, or any combination or reasons. We see examples of introductions in Wilkinson’s Blackberries, Blackberries and Yerby’s The Short Stories of Frank Yerby. In each of these books, Wilkinson and Veronica Watson respectively discuss the collection and its organization, typically focusing on overarching themes that connect the stories to on another and bind them together in a cohesive manner.

For this assignment, you will create a small, short story anthology consisting of five stories. For the anthology, you must (1) provide a table of contents with the five short stories and (2) write a short essay of introduction (500–1000 words) for the anthology. Again, look at the examples we have read in class so far and I will share some with you. Your anthology must consist of five texts — three of the texts must be ones we have read in class and two must be texts that we have not read for the course (the latter can be authors we have read or other authors)

Your introduction will describe your editorial vision and decision-making process. How do your texts speak to one another? Is there a shared theme, sensibility, style, or historical connection? As you write your introduction, think about your readers. Some readers may not have read these stories, so you may need a few words to summarize the stories’ themes and ideas. Your anthology must be titled and provide a table of contents.

You do not need secondary sources for the introduction, but they will help. However, you must either provide quotes from some of the stories or information from secondary sources in the introduction to help support the construction of the anthology and your description of it.

Reflection Paper — For your paper, you must provide a 750–1,000 word reflection that explains your introduction. Specifically, discuss why you chose the stories you chose, the audience, and why you decided to organize them the way that you did. For this part, you need two-three secondary sources that support your argument and construction of the anthology. These sources can focus on the authors and stories that you choose. Also, you can use the sources, quoting them in your introduction.

Possible Stories for Your Anthology (This is not an exhaustive list)

Baldwin, James. “Going to Meet the Man.”
Cable, George Washington. “Tite Poulette”
Chesnutt, Charles. “The Wife of His Youth.”
Chopin, Kate. “Desiree’s Baby.”
Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.”
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. “Nelse Hatton’s Vengeance.”
Faulkner, William. “Dry September.”
Hemingway, Ernest. “Big Two-Hearted River.”
Kelley, William Melvin. “The Only Many on Liberty Street.”
Kelley, William Melvin. “The Servant Problem.”
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
O’Connor, Flannery. “Revelation.”
Petry, Ann. “Like A Winding Sheet.”
Seghers, Anna. “The End.”
Toomer, Jean. “Avey.”
Welty, Eudora. “A Worn Path.”
Wright, Richard. “Big Boy Leaves Home.”

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Make sure to follow me on Bluesky @silaslapham.