In this class we will examine the way in which the sensibility of the 20th-century American writer found in the short story a highly congenial medium, exerting a major influence on the development of this genre, from the innovations of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway to a second golden age in the last half of the 20th century. As our stories move from Minnesota to Mississippi, from Georgia to New York City, from the fantastic to the “dirty real,” we will especially examine the way the short story produces a moment of truth, rearranging our perceptions, and bringing new insights; through its very brevity it will bring an overflow of revelation, illumination, or feeling. Although now considered classics, these stories will also still address relevant modern problems and modern situations, featuring essential American authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, Richard Ford, James Alan McPherson, Bernard Malamud, Ann Beattie, Ursula K. LeGuin.