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  • Fun With A Stranger by Richard Yates Analysis

    Fun With A Stranger by Richard Yates Analysis

    Some short stories exist mainly as character studies. Fun With A Stranger (1962) by American author Richard Yates is one example.  The story paints a portrait of a particular kind of old-fashioned school teacher. The reader feels empathy for everyone involved, from the young pupils to the teacher herself.

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    April 20, 2015
  • Kiss Me Again, Stranger by Daphne du Maurier Short Story Analysis

    Kiss Me Again, Stranger by Daphne du Maurier Short Story Analysis

    “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” by Daphne du Maurier (1952) is as supernatural as a story gets without actually being supernatural.

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    October 11, 2022
  • The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg Analysis

    The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg Analysis

    The Stranger (1986) is the seventh picture book written and illustrated by popular American storyteller Chris Van Allsburg.

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    February 1, 2021
  • The Home Girls by Olga Masters Short Story Analysis

    The Home Girls by Olga Masters Short Story Analysis

    “The Home Girls” is a short story by Australian writer Olga Masters (1919 – 1986), and the first story of Masters’ 1982 collection, also called The Home Girls. I’m interested in Olga Masters partly because her fiction wasn’t published until she was in her 50s. Then, when she was published, she won a bunch of […]

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    February 12, 2021
  • Loneliness in Art and Storytelling

    Loneliness in Art and Storytelling

    Edward Hopper was a master at depicting loneliness with paint. The sense of isolation is achieved with colour and composition. Eyes don’t meet, or not at the same time. Body language is closed off. Figures are small inside vast spaces, their heads far from the top of the canvas. They gaze from windows as if longing for connection.

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    April 17, 2020
  • Short Story Study For Writers

    Short Story Study For Writers

    In the 1880s Brander Matthews said that short stories should be spelt with a hyphen to distinguish between two different forms, which reminds me of the picture book vs picturebook debate. A short story is a story that is short. A short-story proper derives from the Romantic tradition and has its beginnings in myths and legends.…

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    May 15, 2015
  • Two Hundred Rabbits (1968) by Lonzo Anderson and Adrienne Adams Picturebook Analysis

    Two Hundred Rabbits (1968) by Lonzo Anderson and Adrienne Adams Picturebook Analysis

    “Two Hundred Rabbits” is a 1968 picture book written by Lonzo Anderson and illustrated by Adrienne Adams, who were married.

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    January 29, 2023
  • Whistler’s Grandmother by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis

    Whistler’s Grandmother by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis

    “Whistler’s Grandmother” by Shirley Jackson was published in the May 5, 1945 edition of The New Yorker. Find it also in the collection Just An Ordinary Day (1996).

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    December 21, 2022
  • The Things They Left Behind by Stephen King Short Story Analysis

    The Things They Left Behind by Stephen King Short Story Analysis

    “The Things They Left Behind” is a post 9/11 short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in 2006.

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    November 14, 2022
  • Hairball by Margaret Atwood Short Story Study

    Hairball by Margaret Atwood Short Story Study

    “Hairball” is a dark and playful short story by Margaret Atwood. Find it in the Wilderness Tips collection (1991).

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    October 25, 2022
  • Asexuality Reading List: Non-fiction

    Asexuality Reading List: Non-fiction

    You don’t understand sexuality until you understand asexuality. Asexuality is not an absence of sexuality. Rather it is a ‘self-contained sexuality’.

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    October 17, 2022
  • Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood

    Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood

    “Wilderness Tips” (1991) is an ecological short story by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, full of duplicity, doubles and dark humour.

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    October 10, 2022
  • “Home” by Shirley Jackson and the Gossiping Busybody Archetype

    “Home” by Shirley Jackson and the Gossiping Busybody Archetype

    In “Home”, Shirley Jackson takes the urban legend of the ghost hitch-hiker and turns it into something new.

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    October 10, 2022
  • Paranoia by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis

    Paranoia by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis

    “Paranoia” is a noir short story by American writer Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). A man is followed home by a stalker. Or is he?

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    October 5, 2022
  • The Turning by Tim Winton Short Stories Analysis

    The Turning by Tim Winton Short Stories Analysis

    The Turning is a 2004 short story collection by Western Australian author Tim Winton. In 2013 the collection was adapted for film. It’s unusual to find a feature-length film which is actually a series of short stories, which might partly explain the tagline on the movie poster: A Unique Cinema Event. I really enjoyed three…

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    September 30, 2022
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