Get the Knowledge Without the College! You are a writer. You dream of sharing your words with the world, and you're willing to put in the hard work to achieve success. You may have even considered earning your MFA, but for whatever reason--tuition costs, the time commitment, or other responsibilities--you've never been able to do it. Or maybe you've been looking for a self-guided approach so you don't have to go back to school. This book is for you. DIY MFA is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. By combining the three main components of a traditional MFA--writing, reading, and community--it teaches you how to craft compelling stories, engage your readers, and publish your work. Inside you'll learn how to: • Set customized goals for writing and learning. • Generate ideas on demand. • Outline your book from beginning to end. • Breathe life into your characters. • Master point of view, voice, dialogue, and more. • Read with a "writer's eye" to emulate the techniques of others. • Network like a pro, get the most out of writing workshops, and submit your work successfully. Writing belongs to everyone--not only those who earn a degree. With DIY MFA, you can take charge of your writing, produce high-quality work, get published, and build a writing career.

During the civil rights era, masses of people marched in the streets, boycotted stores, and registered to vote. Others challenged racism in ways more solitary but no less life changing. These twenty-three stories give a voice to the nameless, ordinary citizens without whom the movement would have failed. From bloody melees at public lunch counters to anxious musings at the family dinner table, the diverse experiences depicted in this anthology make the civil rights movement as real and immediate as the best histories and memoirs. Each story focuses on a particular, sometimes private, moment in the historic struggle for social justice in America. Events have a permanent effect on characters, like the white girl in "Spring Is Now" who must sort through her feelings about the only black boy in her school, or the black preacher in "The Convert" who tells a friend, "This thing of being a man . . . The Supreme Court can't make you a man. The NAACP can't do it. God Almighty can do a lot, but even He can't do it. Ain't nobody can do it but you." If a character survives--and some do not--the event can become a turning point, a vision for a better world. The sections into which the stories are grouped parallel the news headlines of the day: School Desegregation (1954 on), Sit-ins (1960 on), Marches and Demonstrations (1963 on), and Acts of Violence. In the last section, Retrospective, characters look back on their personal involvement with the movement. Twenty writers--eleven black and nine white--are represented in the collection. Ten stories were written during the 1960s. That the others were written long after the movement's heyday suggests the potency of that time as a continuing source of creative inspiration.

The classroom standard for readers and aspiring writers of fiction, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction offers the most comprehensive, engaging selection of classic and contemporary stories in the field.

Short offers the tradition and glorious present of these popular forms that stretch and defy genre. From 1500 to present, hundreds of pieces. Inventive, entertaining, and addictive.

This anthology contains fourteen intriguing stories by active research scientists and other writers trained in science. Science is at the heart of real science fiction, which is more than just westerns with ray guns or fantasy with spaceships. The people who do science and love science best are scientists. Scientists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Fred Hoyle wrote some of the legendary tales of golden age science fiction. Today there is a new generation of scientists writing science fiction informed with the expertise of their fields, from astrophysics to computer science, biochemistry to rocket science, quantum physics to genetics, speculating about what is possible in our universe. Here lies the sense of wonder only science can deliver. All the stories in this volume are supplemented by afterwords commenting on the science underlying each story.

More than an anthology, Contemporary Maine Fiction is a celebration of the quality and diversity of today's fiction writing in Maine. Editor Wesley McNair has assembled 14 short stories for the collection, several of which are being published for the first time. Among the contributors to this anthology are Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Russo and Richard Ford and best-selling novelist and National Book Award winner Stephen King. Contemporary Maine Fiction offers both a celebration of Maine's writers and the art of storytelling itself.

This collection of previously published short shorts by Emerson alumni celebrates the short short genre and the important role Emerson College's writing program has played in the history of that genre. The anthology features authors: Derrick Ableman, Joann Avallon, Rusty Barnes, Jane Berentson, Stace Budzko, Leslie Busler, Jennifer Carr, Keith Carter, Chip Cheek, Amy L. Clark, Kirsten Culbertson, Mark DeCarteret, Erin Dionne, Denise Duhamel, Elizabeth Kemper French, Lee Harrington, Jen Heller, Chris Helmuth, Steve Himmer, Brian Hinshaw, Jacqueline Holland, Amanda Holzer, Shannon Huffman, John F. Kersey, Laurel Dile King, Mariette Landry, Molly Lanzarotta, Don Lee, Matt Marinovich, Tara L. Masih, Melissa McCracken, Sheehan McGuirk, LaTanya McQueen, Maryanne O Hara, Janice O Leary, Josh Pahigian, Jennifer Pieroni, Robert Repino, Ashley Rice, Matt Rittenhouse, Joe Robb, Beth Anne Royer, Brian Ruuska, Mary Saliba, Nina R. Scheider, Kimberly Ann Southwick, R. S. Steinberg, Cam Terwilliger, Terry Thuemling, and Laura van den Berg, as well as an introduction by Ron Carlson and an afterword by Pamela Painter.

Ten years ago, Jerome Stern, director of the writing program at Florida State, initiated the World's Best Short Short Story Contest. Stories were to be about 250 words long; first prize was a check and a crate of oranges. Two to three thousand stories began to show up annually in Tallahassee, and National Public Radio regularly broadcast the winner. But, more important, the Micro form turned out to be contagious; stories of this "lack of length" now dot the literary magazines. The time seemed right, then, for this anthology, presenting a decade of contest winners and selected finalists. In addition, Stern commissioned Micros, persuading a roster of writers to accept the challenge of completing a story in one page. Jesse Lee Kercheval has a new spin on the sinking of the Titanic; Virgil Suarez sets his sights on the notorious Singapore caning; George Garrett conjures up a wondrous screen treatment pitch; and Antonya Nelson invites us into an eerie landscape. Verve and nerve and astonishing variety are here, with some wild denouements. How short can a Micro be, you wonder. Look up Amy Hempel's contribution, and you'll see.

This volume offers a survey of American short fiction in 59 tales that combine classic works with 'different, unexpected gems', which invite readers to explore a wealth of important pieces by women and minority writers. Authors include: Amy Tan, Alice Adams, David Leavitt and Tim O'Brien.

Punk Fiction is an anthology of short stories, poems and illustrations submitted by an impressive line up of contributors. Each piece of work shares one unifying theme – everything included in this collection will be inspired by a punk rock song. The book will open with a foreword by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Contributors have been hand-picked from the generations that followed the punk revolution; those at the forefront of contemporary popular culture, who have been (and are still being) influenced by the movement, rather than punk’s original vanguard. Though they are drawn mainly from music, those involved also embrace all corners of the arts and include some of the most exciting contemporary authors around. The book will act as proof (if any were needed) that the punk rock legacy was not merely musical but that the stones it cast upon the surface of cultural life created ripples that reached into every corner, and exerted a force that continues to this day. All proceeds raised by the book will be donated to The Teenage Cancer Trust. The book has already been guaranteed the lead review in Mojo magazine on release, as well as the front page of MySpace, which reaches eight million registered users. NME, Q and The Guardian will also support the book’s publication. Due to the list of contributors it is sure to garner substantial media interest. It is also worth bearing in mind that large fanbases will be accessed via many of the contributors’ mailing databases, for example Bloc Party, who currently have a database of 60,000 fans to whom the book will be heavily publicised.