Your own short stories are due (six copies) next week. Below are two contemporary, award-winning authors whose stories can inspire your narrative's style, organization of plot, and conflict.
Among other things, these authors "write what [they] know"; Campbell is a born and bred Michigander and Diaz was born in the DR and raised in Jersey. Each uses these hometowns for the settings of their stories, which allows them to focus on the plots themselves.
Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage was the 2009 National Book Award winner. The collection supports the lesson that a writer can imaginatively explore contemporary life with restraint.
Among other things, these authors "write what [they] know"; Campbell is a born and bred Michigander and Diaz was born in the DR and raised in Jersey. Each uses these hometowns for the settings of their stories, which allows them to focus on the plots themselves.
Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage was the 2009 National Book Award winner. The collection supports the lesson that a writer can imaginatively explore contemporary life with restraint.
Restraint in plot is important. You do not want to overstretch the action happening in your story, especially if you are not writing with a fantasy, sci-fi, magical realist slant.
1. Read "The Trespasser" from Campbell's collection to discuss next class. Pay attention to how she transitions from the past to the present using flashbacks. We'll talk about how her organization and use of 3rd person POV allows for us to see two parallel stories of two of the characters.
Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a story about a fantasy fiction-loving main character who has bad luck with woman and who does not live up to what it means to be a Dominican male. Diaz was chosen as a MacArthur "genius" grant this year.
2. I'd also like you to read Junot Diaz' "Alma," which gives you a larger view of today's literary landscape. Diaz writing style is, to say the least, less restrained than Campbell's in many ways.
Here in Diaz' story, we see contrast. Reading contrasting style is necessary for one's writerly growth. Despite the unrestrained dialogue and exposition for which Diaz is becoming more infamous, the plot of "Alma" is quite basic.
Here in Diaz' story, we see contrast. Reading contrasting style is necessary for one's writerly growth. Despite the unrestrained dialogue and exposition for which Diaz is becoming more infamous, the plot of "Alma" is quite basic.
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