Literature Textbook

Co-editor, with Caitlin Newcomer. Perspectives on the Short Story. Pearson. August 2012.

---. Revised and Expanded Edition. August 2014.

This textbook envisions the genre of the short story as a multiplicity of forms, places, and ideas that influence, overlap, and oftentimes contradict one another. To this end, the collection gathers established works while also presenting underrepresented authors and stories alongside experiments in graphic fiction and postmodernist metafiction. The revised edition added a range of expanded pedagogical content, including a glossary, essay response questions, a sample student essay, an MLA overview and exercises, and discussion questions. 

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This book was used to improve the academic rigor of the major lower-level literature survey course at Florida State University from 2012-2016 (until the State of Florida established "LIT: 2000 Introduction to Literature" as the literature-focused core Humanities course in the state, which shifted Gen Ed course requirements away from the short story class for which this book was designed). When in use, this book regulated and substantially reduced material costs for students while simultaneously providing a much needed revenue stream that funded graduate student research. 

Review

"Perspectives on the Short Story is a richly stimulating anthology, embodying an eclectic and brilliantly synthesizing sensibility.  This should become a standard in the 21st century classroom."
—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize Laureate in Fiction

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