American realism was most commonly a feature of narrative fiction such as in the works of Stephen Crane, although authors occasionally applied its themes and literary techniques to poetry and drama as Stephen Foster did. ... Crane is a well noted realist author, short story writer, and poet. ... Nineteenth-century realist writers Stephen Crane and Stephen Foster addressed social, economic, and political concerns through their depictions of various aspects of life during that time, and they strove to accurately represent contemporary culture and the common people of society. ... These two aut...

• Word Count: 765
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Anne Tyler Well-known contemporary novelist and short story writer, Anne Tyler, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1941 to Lloyd, an industrial chemist, and Phyllis Tyler, a social worker. ... In 1965, the couples first daughter, Tezh, was born, followed by Mitra in 1967, prompting the family to move to Baltimore, the place in which Tyler still resides, although now widowed, and where many of her novels and short stories are set, especially Baltimore's Roland Park-the "epitome of upper-middle class waspdom in all its glory" (DISCovering Authors). ... Perhaps one of Tyler's gre...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" also is redeemed from derivativeness by its ties to specific historical backgrounds and to contemporary social and political issues. ... The haunting at the core of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is directly connected to social and historical dislocations attendant upon a contemporary phenomenon that at first would seem antithetical to ghost stories: a "great torrent of migration and improvement" (p. 274) that had particular salience in the New York area. ... It is even unclear who is the author of the story as the reader receives it: If the postscript explicitly ...

• Word Count: 1590
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For a debut novel, it brought the author rare attention, first as a winner of the Governor-General's Award of Canada and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, then as an entry on the shortlist for the Booker Prize. ... As far as Parsi life goes, though, Mistry has some competition, because the Pakistani writer Bapsi Sidhwa, now a United States citizen, has written a robust novel that portrays this community during the colonial period, The Crow Eaters (1980), another that depicts a Parsi family in Lahore during the time of Partition in 1947, Cracking India (1991), and a third set in the postcolo...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For a debut novel, it brought the author rare attention, first as a winner of the Governor-General's Award of Canada and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, then as an entry on the shortlist for the Booker Prize. ... As far as Parsi life goes, though, Mistry has some competition, because the Pakistani writer Bapsi Sidhwa, now a United States citizen, has written a robust novel that portrays this community during the colonial period, The Crow Eaters (1980), another that depicts a Parsi family in Lahore during the time of Partition in 1947, Cracking India (1991), and a third set in the postcolo...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate