Anyone have a short, short story to recommend?I wi

Kill me now, because it'll be another bridge tale.

I happen to enjoy the works of Ambrose Bierce, who wrote several shorties, including a personal favorite An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge (American Civil War era); but, it doesn't really fall into short, short, runs about 3400 words. It can be located here:
http://www.readbookonline.net/stories/Bierce/74/ (listed strangestly under the letter O) as can other Bierce stories. I like his work, much of it is quite descriptive and gives settings at particular times, years. For additional shorts, there is a menu on the left of the Patagonia.

Additionally, I find the short stories of Raymond Carver to be nicely done; not sure if they'd fit your needs.

There are a few I should recall but am lost, one was a Sherwood Anderson bit, and the one with the escaped mentally ill man, How Beautiful With Shoes by Wilbur Daniel Steele. The Anderson and Steele stories were in books I read back in college, in Humanities courses, (at least Steele was, not as sure about Anderson, that may have been the English class...it's been a few deciduous decades since then, but they were college level and in that Freshman year).

For a poem of length with several images to be conjured up along with descriptions of all that is occurring, there's The Death Of The Hired Man by Robert Frost. It can be locationed on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZxHIPueRU

my favourite short story

Once upon a time, they all lived happily after ever. Then I woke up and it was all a dream.

"The Lady or the Tiger" by Frank Stockton

"Disillusionment" by Thomas Mann

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce

"Gift of the Magi" by O Henry

Im not good at remembering particular stories and read for the bath of experience, not analysis, so I remember writers I got on with more than plots.

I've some short story writers I like - Balzac, de Maupassant, to the very different Laurie Colwin or Alice Munro or Edna O'Brien. Which brings up William Trevor, but I think he would be a hard one to engage a lot of students with.

Jamaica Kincaid, has she written short stories? I think so. Junot Diaz?

Split Cherry Tree

http://www.americanliterature.com/Stuart/SS/SplitCherryTree.html

Anything by O.Henry
Almost anything by Ernest Hemingway
Saki (H.H. Munro)

It's not that its a bridge tale: it's about asking the same questions, attempting to generate a discussion, six times over (three semesters with two sections each).

I've never read either Ambrose Bierce or Raymond Carver, although I did see the movie Short Takes based on, I believe, a collection of his short
stories.

I remember . . . now that you mentioned it, of course . . . the poem "The Death of The Hired Man."

I'll look into Bierce and Carver during term break.

Thank you so much!

That makes two votes for the Bierce story. I will look into it and the Mann story.

I remember the "Gift of the Magi"from very early on, perhaps, as early as 6th or 7th grade.

Thanks!

many of his stories have lessons that are also found in the stories of other cultures - there could an interesting lesson plan there

That is food for thought: a gun-toting, uniformed man who doesn't believe in science arguing with a teacher over personal responsibility! A tale ripped from today's headlines!

Do you remember Peggy Lee's hit song "is that all there is"? It is taken entirely from Mann's short story.

That's interesting. I always liked that song, but, I loved Peggy Lee. My mother hated it.

Interesting observation. I can also see some of that in Hans Christian Andersen's works - though the lives and characters of the respective authors were very different.

I also think that any of Aersop's Fables might also be a useful resource for POM's classes.