Cullman Center Institute for Teachers: Flaws in the Texture of Life Feeling, Imagery, and Weirdness in the Short Story with Mary Gaitskill

Mary Gaitskill, one of America’s master short story writers, leads a seminar on four brilliant stories: The 5:48 by John Cheever; Vandals by Alice Munro; Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor; and The End of FIRPO in the World by George Saunders. The class will discuss each work's apparent theme, style, and representation of character, and will pay special attention to the ways writers use words to create non-verbal experience through which readers sense the hidden and irrational inner life of characters and stories. In the afternoon, teachers will share strategies for teaching the short story and discuss ways to bring the day’s material into the classroom.