This anthology is an international story collection by critically-acclaimed authors, and includes essays by renowned writers and scholars on the key stylistic elements of this relatively new art form: the very short story. Authors of these classic, modern, and avant garde stories include Alice Walker, Yasunari Kawabata, Helena Vivien Viramontes, Amy Hemple, H.H. Munro, and Anton Chekhov, plus many others. It provides students with an exciting taste of global literature, and writing guidelines which includes a list of 10 succinct crafting instructions enables students to focus on key aspects of writing as they analyze the authors' prose and write their own very short stories.