Short fiction has often been identified as the genre that tells the tale of the multitude of lives and people in the United States of America. Washington Irving, one of the first practitioners of this genre in the U.S.A. claimed that short stories capture “a constant activity of thought and a nicety of execution” and that its successful execution to narrate or present complicated plots and issues requires more skills than longer genres of fiction (i.e. novellas or novels). This course attempts to capture the essence of diversity and perspectives of comparative world literature through an engagement with short fiction from around the world. We will also analyze and interact with different aspects of literary criticism through theories of the genre, feminist, gender and queer theory, postcolonial theory, affect theory, translation, etc. through our engagement with short stories using anti-oppressive and equity-based learning practices. We will read authors like: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, Mary Austin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gabriel García Márquez, Matsuda Aoko, and so on.