Fiction, A Pocket Anthology: Seventh Edition

by R.S. Gwynn

A perfect alternative to massive fiction anthologies, this brief, affordable collection of 44 short stories from the past three centuries provides a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the study of fiction. Chronologically organized, the anthology includes classic tales from 19th century authors like Hawthorne, Poe, Jewett, and de Maupassant; 20th century gems by Hawthorne, Irving, Poe, Cather, Hurston, Faulkner, O'Connor, and Richard Wright, among others; and admired stories from contemporary authors like Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Sherman Alexie, and Jhumpa Lahiri-reflecting a diverse range of writers and styles.

Genres: Fiction

480 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2014

About the author

R.S. Gwynn, known as a "new formalist" poet, received a BA from Davidson College, where he twice won the Vereen Bell Award for Creative Writing, and he earned both an MA and an MFA from the University of Arkansas, where he won the John Gould Fletcher Award for Poetry. Gwynn has also won the Michael Braude Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He is the author of several collections of poetry, including No Word of Farewell: Selected Poems 1970–2000; The Narcissiad (1982), a book-length satirical poem; and The Drive-In (1986), winner of the Breakthrough Award from the University of Missouri Press. Gwynn has taught at Lamar University since 1976. He lives in Beaumont, Texas.

Reviews

[Kitty]

This is a great collection of (mostly) American short stories. I sort of assumed that I would've read most of the stories in this collection, but apart from a few real standards, a lot of these were new to me. This book will lead me to lots of new authors, and I hope I enjoy the rest of their work as much as this collection. The only complaint I have is that the last couple of stories were really riddled with typos, but the rest didn't have that problem.

[Anthony Nuccio]

Great collection of short fiction.