Portable, accessible, affordable, and packed with engaging examples, Crafting Stories is a friendly introduction to writing short fiction. It encourages students to read fiction actively, with a writer’s eye, and to approach their own work in a spirit of adventure without sacrificing rigor. It makes the elements of story-craft more engaging to student readers, so that beginning writers can see greater progress reflected in their short stories over the course of a single semester.
Comments
“Ethel Rackin’s Crafting Stories is an indispensable resource for creative-writing students and instructors, offering an inviting, accessible introduction to the short-story form. Rackin deftly guides writers through each step of the composition process, from inspiration to revision, illuminating complex concepts with a warm and engaging voice. Crafting Stories provides thorough instruction in the art of the short story via dynamic examples, helpful advice, engaging discussion questions, and inspiring prompts. I look forward to teaching from Crafting Stories for many years to come.” — Alyse Knorr, Regis College
Introduction: The Bridge between Fact and Fiction
- Sandra Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”
Getting Started: The Crafting of a Story
- Jayne Anne Phillips, “Girls”
Details: Creating a World
- Andre Dubus II, “The Intruder”
Viewpoint: Whose Story Is It?
- Anne Beattie, “Snow”
- Anne Pancake, “Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley”
Characterization: Getting to Know You
- Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”
- Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”
Plot: Time Out of Mind
- Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising”
Setting: A Sense of Place
- Mary Robison, “Yours”
- Margaret Atwood, “Death by Landscape”
Style and Tone: Icebergs and Castles
- Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
- Steven Schutzman, “The Bank Robbery”
Revision
Appendices
- Appendix A: Workshopping
- Appendix B: Writing Resources
Ethel Rackin Professor of Language and Literature at Bucks County Community College, has been teaching creative writing for over twenty years. She is the author of the poetry collections The Forever Notes (Parlor Press, 2013), Go On (Parlor Press, 2016), Evening (Furniture Press, 2017), and In Time (Word Works Books, 2025). Her writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry East, Verse Daily, and many other journals.
