Some of these materials were created by other teachers. If I have posted your material and you would rather have it removed, please contact me and I will remove it. When you use another teacher’s material, please give them credit. My students always know when I am using another teacher’s material because a name they don’t recognize appears on the handout.
Oh, by-the-way, I will attempt to keep the stories in alphabetical order, but I won’t guarantee that. Keep searching, the story you want may be here. All of these stories were gathered from the web. If there is a copyright problem and you would like it removed, let me know.
Finally, if there is a story you think I should add, please feel free to contact me. I will search for it; however, if it is not already somewhere on the web, I may choose to not add the story. Again, I am being careful of copyright.
Note: Everything that was in the original Short Stories and Activities has been moved here. Also, I have marked the stories that the collaborative AP Literature facebook page group marked as good for Setting, Structure, Narration, Characterization, and Figurative Language. Let me know if you think other stories fit into one or more of these groups. 2/16/2020
I am adding notation from the Perrine Book that shows Plot and Structure; Characterization; Theme; Point of View; Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy; Humor and Irony. Just another way to teach the stories.
Need to make a .pdf of a web page? Try this PrintFriendly. Works well!
Last update: 6/11/2020
Short Story links – Suggestions for Diversity and Inclusion
Asian-American short story collections …
10 suggested Latin American Short Stories….
10 Great Latin American Writers You Didnt Read in Class………
17 Short Stories by Black authors…..(link)
The American Short Story: A Selective Chronology
American Literature Various choices
Links and Collections
The Bitter Southern …
Classic Short Stories (includes word count)
Katherine Mansfield Society (contains her short stories, including “The Garden Party”
Ambrose Bierce Project (includes his Civil War Stores, Horror Stories, and Tall Tales
The Kafka Project (His short stories translated)
Mark Twain (short stories and books)
The Literature Network (Author List – gives short biography and searchable collection of works)
Forty Short Stories …
Favorite Short Stories Collection (old favorites and new ones)
Story of the Week (Also an extensive list by title and author)
Ray Bradbury (Martian Chronicles – Study Guide)
Short Story Collection …
Short Story Collection Two …
Dystopian Short Stories …
Edgar Allan Poe (Complete Tales and Poems)
Charles Dickens ( Twenty-Two Short Stories)
Stories for Study – College English
Short-Story-One-pager (example any short story from Welcome To The Monkey House)
Reviewing Elements of Fiction (includes graphics)
Elements of Fiction (graphic organizer)
Suggestions for Analyzing Novels and Short Stories (University Writing Center TAM)
43 of the Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language …
Stories and/or Activities
2BR02B – Vonnegut, Kurt
2014-Fiction-Bootcamp …
Teaching The Boarded Window – Ambrose Bierce
Story Pyramid – Cinderella Example
Short story countdown Acitivity
The Sniper – OFlaherty, Liam (with activity)
Analyzing Characters (graphic organizer)
Study Guide for short stories of Ernest Hemingway (8 pages)
How to Read A Short Story …
Short-Story-Analysis …
Ideas for teaching the Short Story …
Story Plot Terms …
Dialectical Journal …
103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading – Jim Burke
Short Stories
Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Excellent resource for a wide variety of authors (wide selection of Ray Bradbury and many others)
30 of the Best Short Stories You Can Read for Free
A & P – Updike, John – Narration
A Clean Well-Lighted Place – Hemingway, Ernest – Setting
A Family Supper – Ishiguro, Kazuo – Characterization
A Good Man Is Hard To Find – O’Connor, Flannery
A Good Man Is Hard To Find and other stories – O’Connor, Flannery – Characterization
A Haunted House – Wolf, Virginia – Structure
A Jury of Her Peers – Glaspell, Susan
A Lifestyle – Sorrentino, Fernando
A painful case – Joyce, James
A Pair of Silk Stockings – Chopin, Kate
A Rose for Emily – Faulkner, William – Setting, Structure, Narration. Characterization
A Small Good Thing – Carver, Raymond
A SORROWFUL WOMAN – Godwin, Gail
A Summer Tragedy – Bontemps, Arna
A Telephone Call – Dorothy Parker
A Temporary Matter – Lihiri, Jhumpa
A Vendetta – Guy de Maupassant ….
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings – Marques, Gabriel Garcia 2 – Setting – Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings – Marquez, Gabriel Garcia – Setting – Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
A Worn Path – Welty, Eudora – Theme
Adam – Vonnegut. Kurt -Characterization
Adams – Saunders, George – Structure
African short stories – includes Amnesty – Gordimer, Nadine
After I was thrown in the river…drowned – Eggers, David – Narration
All the Kings Horses – Vonnegut, Kurt
All-Summer in a Day – Bradbury, Ray
American History – Cofer, Judith Ortiz Setting
An Imaginative Woman – Hardy, Thomas
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – Bierce, Ambrose – Structure
And of Clay We Are Created – Allende, Isabel
Araby – Joyce, James – Figurative Language
Astronomers Wife – Boyle, Kay
BABYLON REVISITED – Fitzgerald, F Scott – Theme
Barn Burning – Faulkner – William
Bartleby, The Scrivener – Melville, Herman – Setting
Bears Discover Fire – Bisson, Terry
Big Two-Hearted River – Hemingway, Ernest – Characterization
Bigfoot Stole My Wife – Carlson, Ron – Narration
Bloodchild – Butler, Octavia
Blue Tigers – Borges, Jorge Luis
Boys – Moody, Rick
Bread – Atwood,Margaret
Boys and Girls – Munro, Alice
Brokeback Mountain – Proulx, Annie
Brothers are the Same – Markham, Beryl
Bullet in the brain – Wolff, Tobias – Structure, Characterization
By the Waters of Babylon – Vincent Benet, Stephen
Cathedral – Carver, Raymond – Characterization
Charles – Jackson, Shirley
Cherry Coke and Mint Pulao – Andra, Anurag …
Click Clack The Rattle Bag – Gaiman, Neil
Clothes – Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee
Collected Stories includes Born of Man and Woman – Matheson, Richard – Born of Man and Woman – Narration
Cream – Murakami, Haruki
Currents – Voskuil, Hannah – Structure
Death by Scrabble – Fish, Charlie
Deer in the Works – Vonnegut, Kurt
Defender of the Faith – Roth, Philip
Deportation at Breakfast – Fondation, Larry
Desirees Baby – Chopin, Kate
Dr. Heigeggars Experiment – Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere – Packer. ZZ
Dystopian Short Stories
Eating Van Gogh – Burk, Mark Simon
Eleven – Cisneros, Sandra – Figurative Language
Enders Game – Card, Orson Scott
EPICAC – Vonnegut, Kurt
Eveline – Joyce, James – Characterization
Everyday Use – Walker, Alice – Characterization – Characterization
Everything that rises must converge – O’Conner, Flannery
Examination Day – Slesar, Henry
Faith and Hope Go Shopping – Harris, Joanne
Farewell to the Master – Bates, Harry
Gift of the Magi – Henry, O.
Girl – Kincaid, Jamaica
Gogol – Lahin, Jhumpa – Characterization
Good Country People – O’Connor, Flannery
Greasy Lake – Boyle, T C – Setting
Guests of the Nation – O’Connor, Frank
Happy Endings – Atwood, Margaret
Harrison Bergeron – Vonnegut, Kurt
Here There Be Tygers – Bradbury, Ray
Hi Howya Doin – Oates, Joyce Carol – Structure
Hills Like White Elephants – Hemingway, Ernest – Narration, Characterization – Point of View
HOW FAR SHE WENT – Hood, Mary
How I met my husband – Munro, Alice – Plot and Structure
How to Become a Writer – Moore, Lorrie
How to Tell a True War Story – OBrien. Tim
Hunters in the Snow – Wolff, Tobias
I Stand Here Ironing – Olsen, Tillie
Interpreter of maladies – Lahiri, Jhumpa – Plot and Structure
In A Grove – Akutagawa, Ryunosuke – Narration
In the Region of Ice – Oates, Joyce Carol
Incarnations of Burned Children – Wallace, David Foster
Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of Parrot – Butler, Robert Olen
Lamb to the Slaughter – Dahl, Roald
Life After High School – Oates, Joyce Carol
Life Without Go-Go Boots – Kingsolver, Barbara
Long Walk to Forever – Vonnegut, Kurt
Luck – Twain, Mark
Man From the South – Dahl, Roald
Martians Come in Clouds – Dick, Philip K
Mateo Falcone – Merimee. Prosper
MicroFiction
Clean Linen – Young, Debbie
Let’s Say – Strayer, Julia
Short and Sweet Reading and Writing
Flash Fiction newyorktimes
The Garden Sky – Petraglia, Dave
The Story Victorious – Keret, Etgar …
Five Short Stories – Lydia Davis
Three Stories – Amy Hempel
More MicroFiction/Flash Fiction might be added later
Miriam – Capote, Truman
Misery – Chekhov, Anton – Theme
Miss Brill – Mansfield, Katherine – Characterization – Characterization
My Kinsman Major Molineux – Hawthorne – Characterization
My Sad Face – Boll, Heinrich – Characterization
Neighbour Rosicky – Cather, Willa
Nightfall – Asimov, Isaac
Nine Stories – Perfect Day – Salinger JD – Perfect Day – Characterization
Old Chief Mshlanga – Lessing, Doris – Narration
On Seeing the 100 Perfect Girl – Murakami, Haruki – Structure
Once More to the Lake – White, e. b.
Once Upon a Time – Gordimer, Nadine – Structure, Narration – Theme
One Friday Morning – Hughes, Langston
One Holy Night – Cisneros, Sandra – Characterization
One of these Days – Marquez, Gabriel, Garcia
One morning in June – Gallant, Mavis
Ordeal By Cheque -Crue, Wuther
Orientation – Orozco, Daniel – Structure
Parsons Pleasure – Dahl, Roald
Paul’s Case – Cather, Willa – Narration, Characterization – Point of View
Popular Mechanics – Carver, Raymond
PUPPY – Saunders, George
Putting a Child to Bed – Hawkins, Tom
Rain Rain Go Away – Asimov, Isaac
Rappaccinis Daughter -Hawthorne – Figurative Language
Reader 1962 – Wolfe, Thomas
Recitatif – Morrison, Toni – Characterization
Redeployment – Klay, Phil
Repent, Harlequin! Said the Tick tock man – Ellison, Harlan
Report on the Barnhouse Effect – Vonnegut, Kurt
Reunion – Cheever, John
Roman Fever – Wharton, Edith – Structure
Roselily – Walker, Alice – Structure
Rules of the Game – Tan, Amy
Sarah Cole A Type of Love Story – Banks, Russell
Sealed Off – Chang, Eileen – Structure, Narration
Shaving – Norris, Leslie
Shining Houses – Munro, Alice
Shooting An Elephant – Orwell, George
Short Fiction Stems PDF Activity
Short Stories – Stevenson, Robert Louis
Short Story Jenga Activity
Sky is Gray – Gaines, Ernest J
Soldiers Home – Hemingway, Ernest
Sonny’s Blues – Baldwin, James – Characterization – Characterization
Speaking of Courage – O’Brien – Structure
Speech Sounds – Butler, Octavia E
Spunk -The Harlem Renaissance Zora Neale Hurston’s First Story
Stories for Study in College English
Strong Horse Tea – Walker, Alice
Sweat – Hurston, Zora Neale
Symbols and Signs – Nabokov, Vladimir
Thank You Ma’am – Hughes, Langston
The 1000000 Bank-Note – Twain, Mark
The Ascent – Rash, Ron
The Balloon Hoax Edgar Allan Poe
The Bass the River and Sheila Mant – Wetherall, WD
The Bet – Chekhov, Anton
The Birthday Party – Brush, Katherine – Narration
The Blue Hotel – Crane, Stephen
The Boarded Window – Bierce, Ambrose
The Body Snatcher – Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Brass Teapot – Macy,Tim
The Call of Cthulhu – Lovecraft, HP
The Cask of Amontillado – Poe – Narration
The Catbird Seat – Thurber, James – Characterization
The Catcus – Henry, O.
The Chaser – Collier, John
The Chrysanthemums – Steinbeck, John
The Circular Ruins – Borges, Jorge Luis – Structure
The Complete Short Stories – Hemingway, Ernest
The Complete Stories – OConnor, Flannery
The Complete Tales and Poems – Poe, Edgar Allan
The Conversion of the Jews – Roth, Philip
The Country of the Blind – Wells, H. G.
The Dead – Joyce, James
The Demon Lover – Bowen, Elizabeth – Structure
The Destructors – Graham Greene – Plot and Structure
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and other stories – Fitzgerald. F Scott
The Drunkard – O’Connor, Frank – Humor and Irony
The Eighty-Yard Run – Shaw, Irwin
The Elephant Vanishes – Murakami, Haruki
The End of Firpo in the World – Saunders, George
The End of the Party – Greene, Graham – Figurative Language
The Euphio Question – Vonnegut, Kurt
The evening and the morning and the night – Butler, Octavia – Setting
The Fall of the House of Usher – Poe – Setting, Figurative Language
The Falling Girl – Buzzati, Dino
The First Confession – O’Conner, Frank
The Flowers – Walker, Alice
The Fly – Mansfield, Katherine
The Fog Horn – Bradbury, Ray
The Friday Everything Changed – Hart, Anne
The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl – Bradbury, Ray
The Garden of Time – Ballard, J. G.
The Garden Party – Mansfield, Katherine – Characterization
The Gift of the Magi – Henry, O.
The Gilded Six-Bits – Hurston, Zora Neale
The Good Deed – Bauer, Marion Dane
The Grave – Porter, Katherine Ann – Figurative Language
The Guest – Camus, Albert – Humor and Irony
The Hand – Colette – Characterization
The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World – Marquez, Gabriel Garcia …
The Horse Dealers Daughter – Lawrence. DH – Structure
The House of Asterion – Borges, Jorge Luis
The Hunger Artist – Kafka, Franz – Figurative Language
The Interlopers – Saki
The Japanese Quince – Galsworthy, John – Setting
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall – Porter, Katherine – Narration – Point of View
The Killers – Hemingway, Ernest – Characterization
The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas – McKnight, Reginald
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories – Millhauser, Steven – The Knife Thrower – Narration
The Kugelmass Episode – Allen, Woody
The Lady with the Dog – Chekhov
The Landlady – Dahl, Roald
The Last Night of the World – Bradbury, Ray
The Law of Life – London, Jack – Characterization
The Lesson – Bambara, Toni – Narration
The Looking Glass – Chekhov, Anton
The Lottery – Jackson, Shirley – Narration – Point of View
The Magic Barrel – Malamud, Bernard
The Magic Shop – Wells, H G
The man who was almost a man – Wright, Richard
The Man Who Would Be King – Kipling, Rudyard
The Mark on the Wall – Woolf, Virginia
The Masque of the Red Death – Poe – Figurative Language
The Metamorphosis – Kafka, Franz – Figurative Language
The Moment Before the Gun Went Off – Gordimer, Nadine – Structure, Characterization
The Most Dangerous Game – Connell, Richard
The Moths – Viramontes, Helena Maria
The Murderer – Bradbury, Ray
The Necklace – Maupssant, Guy de
The Night Face Up – Cortazar, Julio – Structure
The Nightingale and the Rose – Wilde, Oscar
The Nine Billion Names of God – Clarke, Arthur C.
The Old Demon – Buck, Pearl S
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas – LeGuinn, Ursula – Setting, Narration
The Open Window – Saki – Structure
The Painted Door – Ross, Sinclair
The Paper Menagerie – Liu, Ken – Narration, Characterization, Figurative Language
The Pedestrian – Bradbury. Ray
The Piano Player – Barthelme, Donald
The Piece of String – Maupassant, Guy de
The Quiet Man – Walsh, Maurice
The Ransom of Red Chief – Henry, O.
The Reunion – Cheever. John – Characterization
The Rocking-Horse Winner – Lawrence, DH – Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
The Rockpile – Baldwin, James
The School – Barthelme , Donald
The Second Bakery Attack – Murakami, Haruki – Characterization, Figurative Language
The Second Bakery Attack Short Story – Characterization, Figurative Language
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Thurber, James
The Shawl – Ozick, Cynthia
The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber – Hemingway, Ernest
The Signal Man – Dickens, Charles
The Sniper – OFlaherty, Liam – Structure
The Sons Veto – Hardy, Thomas
The Sound of Thunder – Bradbury, Ray – Setting, Figurative Language
The South – Borges, Jorge Luis
The Star – Clark, Arthur C
The Stone Boy – Berriault, Gina
The Story About a Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God – Keret, Etgar
The Story of An Hour – Chopin, Kate – Characterization
The Summer People – Jackson, Shirley
The Sunrise on the Veld – Lessing, Doris
The Swimmer – Cheever, John – Structure, Characterization
The Tell-Tale Heart (with activities) – Poe, Edgar Allan
The Terrible Old Man – Lovecraft, HP – Characterization
The Things They Carried – Chapter 1 – O’Brien, Tim – Setting
The Third and Final Continent – Lahiri. Jhumpa
The Three Questions – Tolstoy, Leo
The Train from Rhodesia – Gordimer, Nadine – Structure
The Use of Force – Williams, William Carlos
The Veldt – Bradbury, Ray
The Wall – Sartre, Jean-Paul – Setting, Characterization
The Wifes Story – Ursula, Leguin K
The Yellow Wallpaper – Gilman. Charlotte – Narration, Characterization – Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
Theft – Porter, Katherine Anne
There Will Come Soft Rains -Bradbury. Ray
They are made out of meat – Bisson, Terry ….
This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona – Alexie, Sherman
Thomas Wolf Reader includes Child by Tiger – Wolf, Thomas
Three Girls – Oates, Joyce Carol
Through the Tunnel – Lessing, Doris
Time and Again – Pancake, Breece D’J
To Hell With Dying – Walker, Alice
Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog – Vonnegut, Kurt
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW – Vonnegut, Kurt
Trifles – Glaspell, Susan
Troll Bridge – Pratchett, Terry
TTTC Full Text – O’Brian
Twenty-six Men and a Girl – Gorky, Maxim
Two Kinds – Tan, Amy – Characterization
Two Words – Allende, Isabel
Unready to Wear – Vonnegut, Kurt
Usher-II – Bradbury, Ray
Victory Lap – Saunders, George
War – London, Jack
War – Pirandello, Luigi
War Prayer – Twain
Welcome to the Monkey House – Vonnegut, Kurt
Welding With Children – Gautreaux, Tim – Narration
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Carver, Raymond
What You Pawn I Will Redeem – Alexie, Sherman
Where are you going, Where have you been – Oates, Joyce Carol – Structure, Characterization
White Angel – Cunningham, Michael
Who Am I This Time – Vonnegut, Kurt
Why I live at the P O – Welty, Eudora – Narration
Winter Dreams – Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Woman Hollering Creek – Cisneros, Sandra – Figurative Language
Young Goodman Brown – Hawthorne – Setting, Structure, Figurative Language – Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
Youth – Conrad, Joseph
