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How To Write Like Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx is an award-winning American novelist and short story writer, best known for The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain”. Below: features of her writing, as described by critics and readers (and me).
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Stand By Me Film Study
Stand By Me is 1986 a film directed by Rob Reiner, based on a Stephen King novella called “The Body”. Alongside the Karate Kid franchise, The Breakfast Club, Dead Poets Society and a few others, Stand By Me is a tentpole coming-of-age film from my 1980s childhood. Unlike The Breakfast Club (and especially Dead Poets…
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Wednesday’s Child Is Full Of Woe: Symbolism and Close-reading
Wednesday (2022) is an eight-part Netflix series directed by Tim Burton, with a script by It is an Addams Family reboot. The original TV series ran from 1964-66.
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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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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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The Cafeteria In The Evening And A Pool In The Rain by Yoko Ogawa
Many writers say this: Stories emerge from the imagination when two different ideas come together in a new way. So it is in the title of this story. What do cafeterias and pools have in common? Evenings and rain? Moving into a new house? “The Cafeteria In The Evening And A Pool In The Rain”…
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The Lagoon and Other Stories by Janet Frame
If you’ve seen Jane Campion’s biopic about New Zealand’s most accomplished author, Janet Frame, you’ll already know that “The Lagoon and Other Stories” saved the author’s life.
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Red Card by S.L. Gilbow Short Story Study
“Red Card” is a 2013 short story by American writer S.L. Gilbow. If you enjoy the creepy suburban tales of Shirley Jackson, you’ll like this one.
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Hack Wednesday by Margaret Atwood Short Story Analysis
Margaret Atwood has a knack for writing prescient feminist pieces which remain relatable over decades. I wish she wouldn’t. I wish, for once, that Margaret Atwood were wrong about something (in fiction).
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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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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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“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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The Shadows On The Wall by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
There’s a subcategory of carnivalesque stories about visitors who outstay their welcome. These stories explore a deeper, broader human fear: The fear of home infiltration.
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The Little Photographer by Daphne du Maurier Short Story Analysis
“The Little Photographer” (1952) is a short crime story by British author Daphne du Maurier. Find it in The Birds and Other Stories, previously published as The Apple Tree collection. Like Rebecca, people of rank are shown to be capable of terrible things.
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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?