American Fiction Short Stories

The woman she’s had a crush on for years needs a fake girlfriend, and Elana is ready to volunteer for the job! Toya is in a bind. Her little sister is getting married, and her mother is insisting she bring her girlfriend to the wedding. She’d told a little white lie to get her mom off her back, but now it’s backfiring. Her mom thinks she’s in a committed relationship, so Toya needs to find a pretend girlfriend, and fast. Elana fell in love with Toya the minute she set eyes on her. Unfortunately, she somehow went right into the friend zone. Elana has been hesitant to rock the boat, ...

From sultry international jungles to the rugged terrain of the American Southwest, join the larger-than-life, scorching-hot alpha heroes of the Bureau of American Defense, Black Ops, Inc., and the US Navy SEALs for all the pulse-pounding, heart-racing, toe-curling excitement. They're cool under pressure, steamy under the sheets, and when the enemy strikes, there's not a lethal mission these gorgeous men can't handle.

These treasured stories from the most influential authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries are selected for their literary importance as well as their dramatic, oral qualities. Listen to these 10 unabridged classics by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, O. Henry, and Willa Cather.

Here is the preface to twelve magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates - with unequaled grace and tenderness - the deepest feelings we have.

Quiet As They Come is a beautiful and at times brutal portrait of a people caught between two cultures. Set in San Francisco from the 1980s to the present day, this debut collection explores the lives of several families of Vietnamese immigrants as they struggle to adjust to life in their new country, often haunted by the memories and customs of their old lives in Vietnam. While some are able to survive and assimilate, others are crushed by the promise of the "American Dream."

Kyle Luman is on the abyss of deep despair. After the loss of his wife, he sees no point to his life other than being the obligatory father to his two children. Living with his family in Connecticut had been his life. Without her, he has no hope. His mother invites him and the children to live with her in Three Oaks, Texas, his hometown. In Three Oaks, he finds renewed friendships, spiritual awakening and love. But he, his friends and his newfound love are also battered by the unseen evils of self-centeredness, envy, jealousy, greed, racism, power-grabbing and political corruption. Kyle ...

The Conjure Woman is a collection of short stories by noted African American author Charles Waddell Chesnutt. It is considered to be one the seminal collections of African American literature.

A collection of Christmas stories written by African American journalists, activists, and writers from the late 19th century to the modern civil rights movement. This landmark collection features writings from well-known black writers, activists, and visionaries such as Pauline Hopkins, Langston Hughes, and John Henrik Clark along with literary gems from rediscovered writers. Originally published in African American newspapers, periodicals, and journals between 1880 and 1953, these enchanting Christmas tales are part of the black literary tradition that flourished after the Civil War.

'From the Ugly Duckling to the Beautiful Swan' is a short story of a girl (Annabelle's) experiences growing up with a much more beautiful sister (Bridgett). Her sister was not only more beautiful but was the elder of the two so she was also more catered to by their parents and grandparents. Despite this, Annabelle always knew she wanted to live a life of elegance. She hated that her sister always got the most desirable boys and the best presents but she always loved her unconditionally anyway. Annabelle's journey from Ugly to Beautiful Swan is a life account that many women can relate too. ...

This collection of short stories includes the works of three famous American writers who contributed a great deal to world literature.

Shortly before her death Angela Carter was preparing this volume of short stories, one which does full justice to the glory of her imagination and the range of her talent. It is divided into distinct parts. The first comprises a group of stories inspired by America: Lizzie Borden visits a circus; a John Ford Western is spiced with the story of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore'; and there is a wonderful Gothic extravaganza set in Hollywood. The second section - Old World Wonders - draws on fairy tales.

There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.

Blackfoot storyteller Alex Soop plunges us into a shocking well of imagination in this collection of short stories, Midnight Storm Moonless Sky. From hauntings on the Highway of Tears to fearful gatherings of ghosts and the sorrows of racism, Soop combines the social anxieties of Indigenous life with spellbinding flights and frights of speculative fiction. Through these enthralling stories of reality mixed with terror, listeners get a wicked glimpse into the genre of Indigenous horror.

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society. In this volume we offer up a small selection of talents from the literary landscape of American women authors whose time has now come again.

In the tradition of Calvino’s Italian Folktales, Greg Sarris, author of the award-winning novel Grand Avenue, turns his attention to his ancestral homeland of Sonoma Mountain in Northern California. In 16 interconnected original stories, the twin crows Question Woman and Answer Woman take us through a world unlike yet oddly reminiscent of our own: one that blooms bright with poppies, lupines, and clover; one in which Water Bug kidnaps an entire creek; in which songs have the power to enchant; in which Rain is a beautiful woman who keeps people’s memories in stones.

Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of stories set in a fictitious town in the 1890s, has long been considered Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece. Haunting and powerful, it draws readers into the streets and houses of Winesburg - and into the darkly complex lives of each of Anderson's unforgettable "grotesques."

The fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell has been honored with the Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review’s Eudora Welty Prize. In this stunning collection—a National Book Award finalist—Campbell’s rural Michigan characters are both as jagged as rusty metal and as delicate as the light brush of fading dreams.

In James William Gardner’s new collection of short stories, the listener will gain authentic insight into the fascinating world of the American south. With humor and sensitivity, the writer grapples with important cultural themes. His characters live and breathe, places become real, tradition is revealed and you may never feel the same way about the south again.

A luminous collection of heartbreaking, startling, and gloriously unique stories set among the Filipino communities of California and the Philippines - now with a new preface by the author, Monstress stands as a landmark of American multicultural short fiction. Lysley Tenorio's tales are framed by tense, fascinating dichotomies: tenderness and power, the fantastical and the realistic, pop culture and high culture, the American and the Filipino.

In 1885 Idaho Territory, widow Victoria Hayes would rather face down claim jumpers with her derringer than lose her late husband's star garnet mine. But when a mysterious prospector with a fighter's grace arrives offering help, she must decide if protecting her claim is worth risking her heart. James "Hawk" Davidson has his own reasons for helping the determined widow—as an undercover agent investigating a string of suspicious mining accidents, he believes her husband's death was no accident. Yet the more time he spends with Victoria, the more he admires her courage and faith in the face ...