Beginnings
This text begins with the protagonist's funeral
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
A love triangle - square? - made more complicated by meddling forest dwellers
Midsummer Night's Dream
Using creative thinking, the protagonist brutally kills the titular character.
The Little Green Monster
This author regularly wrote in iambic pentameter
Shakespeare
This text begins with the protagonist's mother's funeral
The Stranger
Sugar Babies
Some actors deliver a performance so bad... it's actually kind of good.
Midsummer Night's Dream
This author's fiction centers women of the American West.
Kali Fajardo Anstine
The protagonist is released from jail and moves in with her brother and her nephew.
Tomi
A newlywed couple is so hungry, it must be a curse!
The Second Bakery Attack
Grandma helps get rid of the lice (and other things mom is holding on to)
Remedies
This author rarely names their characters.
Sisters
A wife needs someone who matches her husband's measurements for a custom outfit.
Lederhosen
The protagonist's car is being shaken by outside forces and it won't start.
Sleep
This author often defines themself and their vulnerabilities (in their writing) to the audience directly.
Audre Lorde
The narrator befriends a woman who pantomimes peeling oranges.
Barn Burning
This short story is framed around the protagonist's house and three break-ins that occurred over the years.
Galapago
To the other characters, only pain and suffering.
To the reader and protagonist, a redeeming epiphany.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
This author saw art as a way to connect humanity through shared morals ('good' ones only!).
Leo Tolstoy