Featured Stories

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Short story by Ambrose BierceThis Ambrose Bierce story contains some of the best descriptive language in American literature… so much so that most people will need to read the passage at least twice in order to properly appreciate it. All I can say about the plot without spoiling the experience for those who haven’t read it is that the surprise ending usually sticks in reader’s minds for some time. The major themes: sense of duty; love and sacrifice; the brutality of war; confronting death; near-death experiences; and time (the length of a moment) as reflected in the personification metaphor time stood still.

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Beyond the Wall of Sleep

Beyond the Wall of Sleep: Short story by H. P. LovecraftIn this story by H. P. Lovecraft, a psychiatric hospital intern discovers that beyond the wall of sleep we exist as a brother of light able to traverse multiple planes and universes. Intrigued by a dying dullard’s dreams about things he couldn’t possibly have experienced or imagined, he uses a telepathic device to read the man’s mind. As the patient dies, he catches a glimpse of these other worlds and meets the man’s majestic other self. The story raises an interesting question: Which of the two states is the true reality? Themes include dreams, alternative reality, death, the supernatural.

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The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh: Short story by Ray BradburyThis story by Ray Bradbury packs a lot of raw emotion, even though the “action” is limited to a single conversation that takes place over the course of no more than half an hour. A fourteen-year-old drummer boy who must march into battle with no gun or means of protecting himself is a bundle of nerves on the night before his first encounter with the enemy. An inspirational talk with his commanding general teaches him that his drum may be one of the most effective weapons in the army. Themes include isolation and loneliness, empathy, duty, fear, courage, death, honor.

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The Cone

The Cone: Short story by H. G. WellsWhen the manager of an iron-works takes an artist friend he knows to be sleeping with his wife on a tour of the furnaces, it seems inevitable that one of them will meet with an unfortunate ‘accident’. The power of this H. G. Wells story lies in its gradual build-up of suspense and vivid descriptions of the industrial landscape and smelting process. Major themes are adultery, revenge, violence and (for modern-day readers) environmental degradation. Ironically, when the story was published in 1895, readers would have identified the fourth theme as something akin to ‘progress’.

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My Sweet Sixteenth

My Sweet Sixteenth: Short story by Brenda WilkinsonIn this story by Brenda Wilkinson, a school friend helps a young a girl deliver her baby in her upstairs bedroom while a house-full of guests celebrate her “Sweet Sixteenth” birthday downstairs. The baby’s father wanted her to keep it; she wanted a termination but waited too long. The next morning, she secretly takes the baby to a hospital, claiming she found it on the street. Fortunately, the truth comes out and the prospect of family shame encourages her to keep the child, which she now loves. Themes include naivety, choices and consequences, deception, abortion, friendship, social image, and motherhood.

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Children of the Ash-Covered Loam

Children of the Ash-Covered Loam: Short story by N. V. M. GonzalezThis charming story by N. V. M. Gonzalez describes life and ritual during the planting season in a Philippine subsistence farming family. The major conflict in the story, where families band together to communally sow each other’s kaingin (slashed and burned fields), is with nature. A feature of the story is the coming of age of a seven-year-old boy as he receives his first farming responsibility and comes to understand how life emerges from the dark womb of the land. Themes include family, community, living in harmony with the land, the cycle of life, superstition and ritual.

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Shooting an Elephant

Shooting an Elephant: Short story by George OrwellThis story by Eric Arthur Blair (aka George Orwell) is a narrative essay in which the thesis is the wrongs of British Imperialism. A young officer in the British Colonial Police in the early 1920’s describes an experience with an elephant that had killed a villager. He tells how he felt pressured into shooting the animal, even though he knew this to be unnecessary. His fellow Europeans had mixed opinions but fortunately, none of them guessed the real reason for the shooting. Themes include culture clash, prejudice, the need to maintain authority, and moral conscience vs. pride/”face”.

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Quiet Town

Quiet Town: Short story by Jason GurleyThe recently released 6th Assessment Report by the UN Climate Change Panel presents a pessimistic assessment of the world’s progress in controlling global warming. That makes this an appropriate time to feature science fiction writer Jason Gurley’s Quiet Town, a grim picture of what may be the future of low-lying townships along world coastlines. Bev, her son Benji, and annoying neighbor Ezze are among the few remaining residents of a small town in which the rising ocean has just breached the sea wall. Experts had originally predicted that this would not happen for fifty years: it had taken five!

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