A stimulating selection of short stories from the United States (Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Washington Irving, Dorothy Parker and O. Henry), Australia (Henry Lawson) and South Africa (the Nobel Prize-winning Nadine Gordimer) is the cultural springboard for a detailed analysis of this often neglected literary form. Students are guided towards a challenging approach to the texts: looking at literary categories (setting, characters) and literary devices (style, narrator viewpoints) and exploring thematic aspects – all leading towards the production of individual creative writing.