A Very Short Story is one of Ernest Hemingway’s earliest literary works. Not just one of his earliest flash pieces, but one of his first pieces altogether. Remember, Hemingway first started writing for the Toronto Star, followed by the Kansas City Star. This was all way before moving to Paris. The short appeared first as…
Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts, first published in South of No North (1973). Once again Charles Bukowski explores the depths of his alcoholism. The story itself is based on a near-fatal 1954 internal hemorrhage that almost killed Bukowski, painting a picture of drinking not as a pleasure, but as dark…
by Mr. Z… How do you get today’s younger generation to get into Shakespeare? Bob Zaslow, Mr. Z, has come up with the perfect solution: Rap Notes, Shakespeare Raps. Just ask Homer (if he were still around). He’d tell you the only way his fans could pass down The Illiad and The Odyssey to their friends was by rhyming…
OK, I know: another crazy Thompson story. It’s a short one. Quick background: Death of a Poet by Hunter S. Thompson was previously published in his collection Screwjack. The story is about a chaotic night in a Green Bay trailer park after a Packers loss, focusing on a friend’s breakdown. The Packers have lost, and the…
Freak Power in the Rockies, A Memoir and Rambling Discussion (with Rude Slogans) of Freak Power in the Rockies. . . on the Weird Mechanics of Running a Takeover Bid on a Small Town. . . and a Vulgar Argument for Seizing Political Power and Using It like a Gun Ripped Away from a Cop.…
Published in 1936 in Esquire, The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway is the story of a writer, Harry, dying of gangrene on an African safari, who reflects on his life, regrets, and failed artistic potential while his wealthy wife, Helen, cares for him. The narrative uses a dual timeline, with italicized sections detailing Harry’s…
The Mangler is a Stephen King short story about a demonic, sentient laundry press machine that causes a series of gruesome deaths at a laundromat, which a police detective investigates, eventually discovering the machine is possessed and attempting to exorcise it. First published in Cavalier magazine in 1972, it was later collected in King’s 1978…
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is a short story by Guy de Maupassant, first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. It is known for its twist ending, a hallmark of de Maupassant’s style. She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she…
The following is an excerpt: The Sisters B36 by Kurt Vonnegut – a Kilgore Trout story… On the matriarchal planet Booboo in the Crab Nebula, there were three sisters whose last name was B-36. It could be only a coincidence that their family name was also that of an Earthling airplane designed to drop bombs…
CHAPTER I – HOW MRS. LIRRIPER CARRIED ON THE BUSINESS Whoever would begin to be worried with letting Lodgings that wasn’t a lone woman with a living to get is a thing inconceivable to me, my dear; excuse the familiarity, but it comes natural to me in my own little room, when wishing to open…
