A writing critic reviews the construction of Charles Chesnutt’s stories and how to write surfiction.

In Michigan, a recently divorced professor reflects on what it means to exist, first alone in his empty apartment and then alongside his student in a mission to find a missing girl.

An author discusses with his friend the best way to write about a poor aunt. Their words take on a new power when he manifests a literal poor aunt on his back and draws in spectators.

In conversation, a Black girl recalls the day she ate a caterpillar as a child, and her mother discloses the more violent events that happened the same day.

Online, space ship storytellers discuss why they tell stories for a living—and how to do it right.

A formerly imprisoned child seeks to understand the higher order beings in their universe.

A teacher invites her adult students — many with personal ties to the Holocaust — to attend a symposium on genocide, but the event is interrupted by incessant screams of an unknown origin.

A four-year-old Southern boy can read novels but has never spoken a word in his life. When he goes to his family's Fourth of July picnic, he must decide whether it is the appropriate moment to speak—or if there ever will be one.

Through the death of David Foster Wallace, a man considers the relationship with his brother.

An innocent introductory French course called la Muerte teaches vocabulary, by describing a typical farm until the farmer disappears.