On Writing Short Stories

On Writing Short Stories, Second Edition, explores the art and craft of writing short fiction by bringing together nine original essays by professional writers and thirty-three examples of short fiction. The first section features original essays by well-known authors---including Francine Prose, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andre Dubus---that guide students through the process of writing. Focusing on the characteristics and craft of the short story and its writer, these essays take students from the workshopping process all the way through to the experience of working with agents and publishers. The second part of the text is an anthology of stories---many referred to in the essays---that give students dynamic examples of technique brought to life.

In this second edition, author-editor Tom Bailey brings the text up-to-date with new and revised essays alongside classic pieces by Robert Coles and Frank Conroy and a foreword by Tobias Wolff. In the anthology, Bailey retains many of the classics such as Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" and William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and adds new styles and diverse voices to broaden the scope of the short fiction landscape presented here.

Tom Bailey is the author of several books, including Crow Man Stories (2003) and the novels The Grace That Keeps This World (2006) and Cotton Song (2006), as well as A Short Story Writer's Companion (OUP, 2000). His short stories have been anthologized in the Pushcart Prizes, New Stories from the South, Streetsong: New Voices in Fiction, and cited in The Best American Short Stories. Among other Award for his writing. he has received a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship and a Newhouse Award from the John Gardner Foundation and was named winner of the 2006 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction. He currently teaches in the Writers Institute at Susquchanna University, where he is a professor of English and Creative Writing.