Rhode Island Council for the Humanities

American Storytellers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

In the past two centuries, American fiction writers have worked their way into the canon of English-language literature. Their novels and stories have contributed to the impact of American ideas and values throughout the world. Explore the works of an author in the company of others and enter into conversation about what makes a writer's creative voice unique and effective. Choose a single author or plan a special series focusing on multiple authors. Nineteenth-century authors include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Stephen Crane. Twentieth-century authors include Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, John Cheever, John Updike, Thomas Pynchon, Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates, Don DeLillo, and Toni Morrison.

Groups scheduling author discussions should arrange to have participants read relevant works in advance.

Sam Coale is a Professor of American literature at Wheaton College, where he offers courses in fiction, poetry, and drama. The author of Mesmerism and Hawthorne: Mediums of American Romance, he is currently writing a book on American mystery writers. He has served as a humanities discussion moderator for Trinity Repertory Theater and has led over fifty library book discussions. He is a former RICH board member.