Meg, Flan, and Con

A Mini-Session of Short Stories

In this short summer session, we will read short stories by three masters — Margaret Atwood, Flannery O’Connor, and Connie Willis — and engage in casual discussion and debate.

Find copies of the stories (and other resources) below.

We look forward to reading with you!

Reading Plan

June 13: Margaret Atwood

• Story for Session:
  • “Gertrude Talks Back” (1993) — find the short story here or here
    • Optional article: “Female Subjectivity in ‘Gertrude Talks Back’ and ‘Gertrude to Hamlet’“
  • TBA
• About Margaret Atwood
  • Wikipedia
  • Poetry Foundation
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia
  • Article: “Rewriting Canonical Portrayals of Women” by Pilar Cuder Dominguez (2003)
• Other Short Stories
  • “Death by Landscape“
  • “Happy Endings“
  • “Impatient Griselda“
  • “Isis in Darkness“
  • “Murder in the Dark“
  • “There Once Was …“
• Some Collections
  • Good Bones by Margaret Atwood (1993)
  • The Tent by Margaret Atwood (2006)
  • The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories by Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver (1995)
• The Tent by Margaret Atwood (2006)
  • “Life Stories”
  • “Clothing Dreams”
  • “Bottle”
  • “Impenetrable Forest”
  • “Encouraging The Young”
  • “Voice”
  • “No More Photos”
  • “Orphan Stories”
  • “Gateway”
  • “Bottle II”
  • “Winter’s Tale”
  • ‘It’s Not Easy Being Half-Divine”
  • “Salome Was a Dancer”
  • “Plots for Exotics”
  • “Resources of the Ikarians”
  • “Our Cat Enters Heaven”
  • “Chicken Little Goes Too Far”
  • “Thylacine Ragout”
  • “Animals Reject Their Names and Things Return to Their Origins”
  • “Three Novels I Won’t Write Soon”
  • “Take Charge”
  • “Post-Colonial”
  • “Heritage House”
  • “Bring Back Mom: An Invocation”
  • “Horatio’s Version”
  • “King Log in Exile”
  • “Faster”
  • “Eating the Birds”
  • “Something Has Happened”
  • “Nightingale”
  • “Warlords”
  • “Tent”
  • “Time Folds”
  • “Tree Baby” “But It Could Still

June 20: Flannery O’Connor

• Story for Session:
  • TBA
• About Flannery O’Connor
  • Wikipedia
  • New Georgia Encyclopedia
  • “Writing Short Stories” by Flannery O’Connor
  • Collected Works
• Articles
  • “The ‘Canceling’ of Flannery O’Connor?” by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell (2020)
  • “How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor?” by Paul Elie (2020)
• Short Stories
  • “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1953/1954)
  • “Good Country People” (1955)
  • “Revelation” (1965)
  • “Everything That Rises Must Converge” (1965)
• Some Collections
  • A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1965)

June 27: Connie Willis

• Story for Session:
  • “All About Emily” (2011)
  • or via the Internet Archive
• About Connie Willis
  • Wikipedia
  • Connie Willis: Introduction
  • Author Website
• Articles
  • “The Quotidian Apocalypse and the Quixotic Cause: An Interview with Author Connie Willis” by Wendy Highby, Katherine Shull, and Emory Jay Trask (2020)
  • “Renowned science fiction author and Greeley resident, Connie Willis, sees ‘Doomsday Book’ come to life amid pandemic” by Dan England
  • “The Business of Time Travel: A Case Study Examining the Processing of the Connie Willis Papers at the University of Northern Colorado” by Emory J. Trask and Katherine Shull (2016)
• Some Other Stories