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

An English professor meets his long-time writing idol, who turns out to be a surly and irritable man — nothing like the majestic intellectual the professor had envisioned.

A Hemingway scholar is convinced by a conman to forge a Hemingway story in order to get millions of dollars in a plot that may disrupt the omniverse, even as the famed author steps in to intervene.

An unassuming attendee of Gertrude Stein’s famed Paris salon reflects on his time as a writer. Twenty years after Stein’s passing, he realizes the profound truths of her life, art, and legacy.

A professor tries to convey to his students the magnitude of the most perfectly crafted poem ever written in the English language: “Lycidas.”

An overweight journalist navigates a strange friendship with a legendary writer and finds his life curiously entwined with one of the writer's students, a fiery young girl.

A priest assailed by doubt in his faith and purpose visits Dick Carson, a mutual friend whose wife has just died in a car accident. By sharing their interests with one another, they find comfort and fulfillment in their relationship.

During a voyage to Bangkok, a captain sets out for a side-trip to a small island where a lone writer has isolated himself, crafting the work of his lifetime so he may regain the glory he once had and rejoin his beloved.

Jaded architect John Cashmore begins finding fault with the greed and ambition of everyone around him, dissolving into erratic behavior on a business trip as he desperately tries to reckon with lost dreams and hopelessness.

In Iowa, a young violinist is asked to play at a famous poet's memorial. In the process, he gains a new perspective on who and why we grieve.