stories that teach

In our Stories That Teach series, we take a close look at our favorite tales to see what they can teach us about craft. We’ve examined the fictional lessons and social relevance of Susan Minot’s story “Lust,” dissected the elegant sentences in Lauren Groff’s “Ghosts and Empties,” and considered what makes Steven Barthelme’s “Heaven” so effective. In our February edition of Stories That Teach, we discuss one of our old favorites: “Letter to the Lady...

In our Stories That Teach series, we look at what some of our favorite works of short fiction can teach us about craft. In the past, we’ve examined the art of the sentence in Lauren Groff’s “Ghosts and Empties” and dissected the creepiness of Laura Benedict’s “When I Make Love to the Bug Man,” to name just two. Today, we examine the ineffable lessons that Susan Minot’s “Lust” can teach us about the fictional form,...

Our Stories That Teach series closely examines works of fiction for the lessons that they can teach us about craft. We’ve taken a look at Lauren Groff’s exquisite sentences, the creepy suspense of Laura Benedict’s “When I Make Love to the Bug Man,” and interiority in Anne Valente’s beautiful story “Mollusk, Membrane, Human Heart,” to name a few. Today, we dive into our own archives and discuss sentence integrity in Molly Jean Bennett’s flash story...

Today, we present the October edition of our Stories That Teach series, in which authors discuss effective craft elements of a particular story. We are proud to feature a contribution from the venerable Adrian Van Young, who dissects Laura Benedict’s masterfully unsettling tale “When I Make Love to the Bug Man.” In Benedict’s creepy story, a woman becomes mysteriously enthralled with the exterminator hired to rid her house of a spider infestation. You won’t quite...

In our Stories That Teach series, we consider the lessons that some of our favorite stories can teach us about craft. In the past: David James Poissant has written about the elements he admires in “Heaven” by Steven Barthelme; editor Kim Winternheimer has walked us through the exquisite sentences in Lauren Groff’s “Ghosts and Empies”; and we have examined the authoritative magic in Aimee Bender’s “The Rememberer.” Today, we take a close look at interiority...

On Monday, we heard from author David James Poissant on craft elements he admires in Steven Barthelme’s story “Heaven.” On Wednesday, Masters Review editor Kim Winternheimer took us through the beautifully crafted sentences of Lauren Groff’s “Ghosts and Empties.” Today, editor Sadye Teiser talks about Aimee Bender’s story “The Rememberer” and the lessons it can teach us about writing with authority. “Even for writers who strictly follow the realist tradition, “The Rememberer” is a good...

In this craft essay, Masters Review editor Kim Winternheimer uses Lauren Groff’s “Ghosts and Empties,” to examine how success on the sentence level affects story elements. “New writers fill their sentences with syrupy words or too many adverbs, but good writers use prose to reflect a sensibility about the world.” Read “Ghosts and Empties” here. Discussed by Kim Winternheimer “Ghosts and Empties” was published in The New Yorker last July, and while I’ve always been...

This week, we’ll be examining some of our favorite short stories and discussing the craft elements that make them so memorable. Today, author David James Poissant walks us through the brilliant story, “Heaven” by Steven Barthelme. “The story is wild, funny, fierce. It’s imaginative. But those are just adjectives. What, then, makes this story so solid, in terms of craft? I’m glad you asked.” Read “Heaven” by Steven Barthelme here. Discussed by David James Poissant...