Laura Kopchick
Presented to The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries on the occasion of Promotion to Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Laura Kopchick, English, Fall 2022.
Item(s) added to the Libraries' collection:
100 years of the best American short stories
Moore, Pitlor, H., Ferber, E., Anderson, S., Hemingway, E., Lardner, R., Fitzgerald, F. S., Porter, K. A., Faulkner, W., Hale, N., Welty, E., Cheever, J., Olsen, T., Baldwin, J., Roth, P., O’Connor, F., Updike, J., Carver, R., Oates, J. C., … Fitzgerald, F. S. (Francis S. (2015). 100 years of the best American short stories (Moore & H. Pitlor, Eds.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be a writer. More specifically, a writer of short stories. A short story must do all of the work of a novel (create compelling characters, develop a narrative arc) but in a much more confined space. In a short story, every scene, every sentence counts. There is no room for excess. This anthology includes many of my favorite authors, both classic and contemporary. There are stories here from many of the writers who have inspired me, from my favorite author (Flannery O’Connor) to Grace Paley, George Saunders, Tobias Wolff, and the writer who directed my MFA thesis and who helped put me on the path to my own writing career, Charles Baxter. I hope this collection of stories will inspire others in the way that it has inspired me.