Like language, story-telling is a universal phenomenon across the cultures of the world—both historically and presently. People, everywhere, through the millennia, have always told stories. Stories help us understand what it means to be human. Stories help us understand what it means to live in a particular place at a given moment. Stories help shape reality by projecting virtual worlds we can assess, either positively, negatively, or somewhere in between. And stories help us calibrate the joys as well as the sorrows of daily existence. In the time allotted us, we will consider short stories, grouped in pairs that share thematic and/or structural elements, from some of the masters whose artistry has distinguished them as exemplary practitioners of the genre. Specifically, we’ll explore texts by James Joyce and Katherine Ann Porter; William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor; Shirley Jackson and Tobias Wolff; and Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Italo Calvino. No prior knowledge of these authors is required. Just read the stories, think about them, and join the conversation.