E-Book Overview
Short stories offer readers the unique opportunity to experience a powerful piece of literature in a deceptively small package. The constraints of a few thousand words can give the best works an economy of storytelling that distills the power of the written word in astonishing ways. The brevity of short fiction belies its emotional and intellectual complexity.
E-Book Content
Topic Literature & Language Discover how to read, write, and appreciate American short stories with an award-winning teacher and published author. Great American Short Stories “Pure intellectual stimulation that can be popped into the [audio or video player] anytime.” —Harvard Magazine “Passionate, erudite, living legend lecturers. Academia’s best lecturers are being captured on tape.” —The Los Angeles Times “A serious force in American education.” —The Wall Street Journal Great American Short Stories A Guide for Writers and Readers Course Guidebook Professor Jennifer Cognard-Black St. Mary’s College of Maryland Jennifer Cognard-Black is a Professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She earned her PhD in 19thCentury British and American Literature from The Ohio State University. Professor Cognard-Black is a prolific creative writer. She has published her essays and short fiction in a number of journals, ranging from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction to Another Chicago Magazine. Twice, Professor Cognard-Black has received the most prestigious teaching award at her institution, the Faculty Student Life Award. Professor Photo: © Jeff Mauritzen - inPhotograph.com. Cover Image: © Hero Images/Getty Images. Course No. 2323 © 2019 The Teaching Company. PB2323A Guidebook THE GREAT COURSES ® Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfields Boulevard, Suite 500 Chantilly, VA 20151-2299 USA Phone: 1-800-832-2412 www.thegreatcourses.com Subtopic American Literature & Writing Published by THE GREAT COURSES Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfields Boulevard | Suite 500 | Chantilly, Virginia | 20151‑2299 [phone] 1.800.832.2412 | [fax] 703.378.3819 | [web] www.thegreatcourses.com Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2019 Printed in the United States of America This book is in copyright. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of The Teaching Company. Jennifer Cognard-Black, PhD Professor of English St. Mary’s College of Maryland J ennifer Cognard-Black is a Professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a public liberal arts college, where she has taught since 2000. She graduated summa cum laude from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a dual degree in Music and English. She then studied under Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley for her MA in Fiction and Essay Writing at Iowa State University. Professor Cognard-Black received her PhD in 19th-Century British and American Literature from The Ohio State University, where she continued to take and teach writing workshops, including working with short story writer Lee K. Abbott. In 2012, Professor Cognard-Black was named a Fulbright Scholar to Slovenia, where she taught the American novel and creative writing, and for the spring of 2020, she has been selected as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in American Culture to the Netherlands, where she will offer a course in American food narratives and social justice at the University of Amsterdam. Professor Cognard-Black is also the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council individual artist award, and she was named a 2019 finalist for the prestigious Robert Fos