40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology

40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology

Seventh Edition  ©2025 Beverly Lawn; Joanne Diaz Formats: Digital & Print

Authors

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    Beverly Lawn

    Beverly Lawn is Professor of English Emerita and taught undergraduate and graduate fiction and poetry courses for over three decades. She is editor or coeditor of several literature anthologies, including 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology and is also the author of Throat of Feathers, a book of poems.

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    Joanne Diaz

    Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors
Other Ways into the Stories: Alternative Contents
 
Reading and Writing about Short Stories
Reading Short Stories Closely
Writing about Short Stories
 
40 Short Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado"
Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"
Anton Chekhov, "The Lady with the Dog"
James Joyce, "Araby"
Franz Kafka, "A Hunger Artist"
Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants"
William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery"
Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"
Flannery O’Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Gabriel García Márquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"
Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson"
Alice Walker, "Everyday Use"
Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl"
Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"
Sandra Cisneros, "The House on Mango Street"
Louise Erdrich, "The Red Convertible"
Tim O’Brien, "The Things They Carried"
Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"
ZZ Packer, "Brownies"
*Toni Jensen, "From the Hilltop"
*Lysley Tenorio, "L’Amour, CA"
*Simon Rich, "I Love Girl"
Lauren Groff, "At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners"
*Carmen Maria Machado, "The Husband Stitch"
*Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You at Home?"
*Rebecca Roanhorse, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM"
Ramona Ausubel, "You Can Find Love Now"
Neel Patel, "If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi"
*Anthony Veasna So, "Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts"
*Jonathan Escoffery, "Under the Ackee Tree"
*Etgar Keret, "Almost Everything"
*Jamil Jan Kochai, "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak"
*Michael Czyzniejewski, "Earth to Terry"
*Lisa Yvette Ndlovu, "Home Became a Thing with Thorns"

Glossary of Literary Terms
Acknowledgments
Index of Authors and Titles

*New to the 7th edition

Product Updates

Twelve new stories. The new selections maintain the anthology’s balance of contemporary and classic fiction and will fire students’ imaginations. They include:
  • Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch”
  • Toni Jensen, “From the Hilltop”
  • Rebecca Roanhorse, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM”
  • Anthony Veasna So, “Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts”
  • Jamil Jan Kochai, “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak”
New guidance on understanding the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom. Chapter 8 encourages students to think critically about the implication—positive and negative—of artificial intelligence when deciding whether and how to integrate it into their writing and learning processes.

Authors

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    Beverly Lawn

    Beverly Lawn is Professor of English Emerita and taught undergraduate and graduate fiction and poetry courses for over three decades. She is editor or coeditor of several literature anthologies, including 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology and is also the author of Throat of Feathers, a book of poems.

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    Joanne Diaz

    Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors
Other Ways into the Stories: Alternative Contents
 
Reading and Writing about Short Stories
Reading Short Stories Closely
Writing about Short Stories
 
40 Short Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado"
Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"
Anton Chekhov, "The Lady with the Dog"
James Joyce, "Araby"
Franz Kafka, "A Hunger Artist"
Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants"
William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery"
Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"
Flannery O’Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Gabriel García Márquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"
Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson"
Alice Walker, "Everyday Use"
Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl"
Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"
Sandra Cisneros, "The House on Mango Street"
Louise Erdrich, "The Red Convertible"
Tim O’Brien, "The Things They Carried"
Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"
ZZ Packer, "Brownies"
*Toni Jensen, "From the Hilltop"
*Lysley Tenorio, "L’Amour, CA"
*Simon Rich, "I Love Girl"
Lauren Groff, "At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners"
*Carmen Maria Machado, "The Husband Stitch"
*Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You at Home?"
*Rebecca Roanhorse, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM"
Ramona Ausubel, "You Can Find Love Now"
Neel Patel, "If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi"
*Anthony Veasna So, "Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts"
*Jonathan Escoffery, "Under the Ackee Tree"
*Etgar Keret, "Almost Everything"
*Jamil Jan Kochai, "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak"
*Michael Czyzniejewski, "Earth to Terry"
*Lisa Yvette Ndlovu, "Home Became a Thing with Thorns"

Glossary of Literary Terms
Acknowledgments
Index of Authors and Titles

*New to the 7th edition

Product Updates

Twelve new stories. The new selections maintain the anthology’s balance of contemporary and classic fiction and will fire students’ imaginations. They include:
  • Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch”
  • Toni Jensen, “From the Hilltop”
  • Rebecca Roanhorse, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM”
  • Anthony Veasna So, “Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts”
  • Jamil Jan Kochai, “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak”
New guidance on understanding the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom. Chapter 8 encourages students to think critically about the implication—positive and negative—of artificial intelligence when deciding whether and how to integrate it into their writing and learning processes.

Diverse classic and contemporary fiction, at an affordable price

40 Short Stories offers a diverse selection of classic and contemporary short fiction for a low price. This book's compact size, low price, and versatility make it an ideal anthology for a variety of courses, including introduction to fiction, creative writing, introduction to literature, or literature-based composition. Stories are arranged chronologically to help students trace the evolution of the short story genre, with brief biographical headnotes providing historical contexts. A critical apparatus on reading and writing precedes the stories, helping students develop the skills they need to engage with and closely read the stories. This edition adds stories by celebrated contemporary writers Carmen Maria Machado, Jamil Jan Kochai, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Looking for instructor resources like Test Banks, Lecture Slides, and Clicker Questions? Request access to Achieve to explore the full suite of instructor resources.

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