T K Long

...if You Read: Short Stories & Essays of Enlightenment T K Long

Publisher Marketing: Literature is nothing more than the art of words. History is the study of past events. When literature and history meet, stories transform into artful expressions and reflections of history or periods of time. An American English teacher (me) and an American History teacher (Susan Palmer) teamed up at Prishtina High School, an English-immersion school located in Matiqan, Kosovo during the 2012-2013 academic year to teach a class called Hist rature. Assigned reading included timeless literary works such as Voltaire's Candide, selections from Dante Alighieri's The Inferno, Thomas More's Utopia, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo and Jonathon Swift's essay entitled A Modest Proposal. Even today, these writings enlighten and speak to modern readers in ways that are surprisingly relevant. Why? Maybe it's the beautiful poetry of the words. Maybe it's the themes of crime and punishment, justice and injustice, individual worth, the role of society or idea of a perfect world, or something more personal. Whatever the reason, these works were written to entertain, inspire, elicit powerful emotion and meaningful debate -- but most of all, to make people think. Thirteen students - hailing from Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia and the United States - were assigned to write and present a story or essay, in 750 words or less, describing their individual journey through this literature. Their presentations were expected to persuade listeners to support the idea that "reading good books can change the way people think." I call these students The Newborn Writers. Of the thirteen, eleven agreed to share their writing with you - a collection of their stories and essays follow. I hope you enjoy them as much as both their teachers did."