Short Story Reading and Writing Workshops
United States — Public Domain Short Stories
Edgar Allan Poe Experiential Learning Activities
The Tell-Tale Heart
https://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart
The Cask of Amontillado
https://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-cask-of-amontillado
The Black Cat
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2148/2148-h/2148-h.htm#chap01
The Fall of the House of Usher
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/932/932-h/932-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
The Gold-Bug
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1 | Project Gutenberg
The Man That Was Used Up
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2150/2150-h/2150-h.htm#link2H_4_0004
Nathaniel Hawthorne Experiential Learning Activities
Young Goodman Brown
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/512/512-h/512-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
The Birth-Mark
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/512/512-h/512-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
Rappaccini’s Daughter
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/512/512-h/512-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
Herman Melville Experiential Learning Activities
Bartleby, the Scrivener
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11231/11231-h/11231-h.htm
Ambrose Bierce Experiential Learning Activities
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
https://americanliterature.com/author/ambrose-bierce/short-story/an-occurrence-at-owl-creek-bridge
The Damned Thing
https://americanliterature.com/author/ambrose-bierce/short-story/the-damned-thing
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Experiential Learning Activities
The Yellow Wallpaper (Abridged Version)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm
Kate Chopin Experiential Learning Activities
The Story of an Hour
https://www.katechopin.org/story-hour/
Desiree’s Baby
https://www.katechopin.org/desirees-baby/
Jack London Experiential Learning Activities
To Build a Fire
The Project Gutenberg Works of Jack London
Mark Twain
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Experiential Learning Activities
/* The best American humorous short stories, by Various—A Project Gutenberg eBook
Edith Wharton (Novella)
New Year's Day
https:/www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61321
Willa Cather
Paul’s Case
The Troll Garden, and Selected Stories by Willa Cather | Project Gutenberg
O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7256/7256-h/7256-h.htm
The Ransom of Red Chief
The Ransom of Red Chief - Short Story by O. Henry
Richard Connel
(Now public domain in the U.S.)
The Most Dangerous Game
Ernest Hemingway
(Now public domain in the U.S.)
Hills Like White Elephants
"Hills Like White Elephants"
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge — Ambrose Bierce (1890)
A condemned man imagines escape in the final moments before execution. Freedom exists not as a political condition but as a fierce, internal human instinct that resists annihilation itself.
Key idea: Psychological freedom under absolute oppression.
Full text:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/375
The Man Without a Country — Edward Everett Hale (1863)
After renouncing his country, a man is sentenced never to hear its name again. Only through exile does he understand the meaning of liberty, belonging, and civic responsibility.
Key idea: Freedom understood through loss and exile.
Full text:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1189
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses — Bret Harte (1874)
A mild, intelligent prisoner earns dignity and protection through intellect rather than violence, redefining strength and autonomy.
Key idea: Intellectual and moral freedom within unjust confinement.
Full text:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2046/2046-h/2046-h.htm#THE_PRISONER_WHO_WORE_GLASSES
The Open Boat — Stephen Crane (1897)
Shipwrecked men confront nature’s indifference and discover freedom not in control, but in shared endurance and human solidarity.
Key idea: Dignity and freedom through collective perseverance.
Full text:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45524
A White Heron — Sarah Orne Jewett (1886)
A young girl must choose between money and protecting a living creature. Her silence becomes an act of moral independence.
Key idea: Ethical freedom and quiet resistance.
Full text:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2046
United Kingdom — Public Domain
H. G. Wells
The Country of the Blind
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm#link2H_4_0001
H. H. Munro (Saki)
The Open Window
https://americanliterature.com/author/hh-munro-saki/short-story/the-open-window
Oscar Wilde
The Happy Prince
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/902/902-h/902-h.htm#chap01
The Nightingale and the Rose
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/902/902-h/902-h.htm#chap02
D. H. Lawrence
The Rocking-Horse Winner
The Rocking-Horse Winner--D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
Ireland
James Joyce
Araby
Araby by James Joyce - Library of Short Stories
Other Short Stories
Dubliners by James Joyce | Project Gutenberg
France
Guy de Maupassant
The Necklace
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3090/3090-h/3090-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
Boule de Suif
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3090/3090-h/3090-h.htm#link2H_4_0001
Russia
Anton Chekhov
The Lady with the Dog
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13415/13415-h/13415-h.htm
The Bet
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13415/13415-h/13415-h.htm
Leo Tolstoy
How Much Land Does a Man Need?
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6157
Genocide Short Stories and More….
This is a carefully curated, classroom-appropriate list of public-domain short stories, memoir excerpts, and eyewitness narratives about genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass atrocity. These are appropriate for middle school, high school, AP, and Human Rights units because they are primary sources or literary narratives written by people who experienced or documented genocide.
Armenian Genocide (1915–1917)
1) Ravished Armenia — Aurora Mardiganian (1918)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53046
(HTML text version)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53046/53046-h/53046-h.htm
2) The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–16 — Toynbee/Bryce (1916)
https://archive.org/details/treatmentofarmen00toyn_0
3) The Tragedy of Armenia: A Brief Study and Interpretation — Bertha S. Papazian (1918)
https://archive.org/details/tragedyofarmenia00paparich
(Optional additional Armenian Genocide pamphlet)
4) The Tragedy of Armenia — Henry Morgenthau (1918) (page images/download hosted by UW-Madison Libraries)
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AKCVAFAZ2GBMB78X
Congo Free State Atrocities (often treated in genocide/atrocity studies)
5) King Leopold’s Soliloquy — Mark Twain (1905)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739
6) Red Rubber — E. D. Morel (1906)
https://archive.org/details/redrubberstoryof00more_0
7) The Casement Report (official correspondence/report on Congo atrocities) — Roger Casement (1904)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50573
Jewish Pogroms / Massacre Documentation (pre-Holocaust)
8) The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919 — Elias Heifetz (1921)
https://archive.org/details/slaughterofjewsi01heif
Herero & Nama Genocide (German colonial rule)
9) Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and Their Treatment by Germany (1918 “Blue Book”)
https://archive.org/details/b32172266
Indigenous Genocide / Ethnic Cleansing (U.S. policy documentation)
10) A Century of Dishonor — Helen Hunt Jackson (1881)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50560
11) Contains several documented genocides by US Military
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee