20 Short Stories Every AP Lit Teacher Should Use

After three decades of teaching English — as a department chair, then as a College Board AP English consultant and AP trainer for the National Math and Science Initiative — I’ve watched a lot of short stories work and a lot of short stories fail in the AP Literature classroom.

This is not a list of the twenty greatest short stories ever written. It’s a list of the twenty stories I keep coming back to because they do specific pedagogical work — they teach a craft element, an interpretive move, or a habit of mind that AP Lit students need before May.

Each entry below tells you what the story teaches, what to watch for, and where it fits in the year. If you want the full lesson packages — close-reading questions, multiple-choice practice, FRQ-style prompts, and answer keys — I’ve built and classroom-tested a unit for most of these. The complete unit plans for many of these stories are in preparation as direct-download bundles.

How to read this list

The AP Literature exam rewards students who can do three things under pressure: read closely, analyze how meaning is made, and write a defensible argument fast. Every story below trains at least one of those muscles. I’ve grouped them by what they teach best.

Stories that teach close reading

1. “Hills Like White Elephants” — Ernest Hemingway

The story to teach first. Hemingway’s iceberg theory in its purest form: 90% of the meaning is beneath the surface. Students learn that what isn’t said can carry more weight than what is. I use this in week two of AP Lit every year.

2. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” — Flannery O’Connor

The single most teachable story in American literature. Every line does triple work — characterization, foreshadowing, theology. Use it to teach how a writer earns a violent ending. Pair with O’Connor’s essay “On Her Own Work” for an upper-level treat.

3. “The Lady with the Dog” — Anton Chekhov

Chekhov is the patron saint of the AP Lit short answer. This story teaches restraint, time-compression, and the moral ambiguity that AP Lit Q3 (the literary argument) loves. Students leave it understanding that resolution is not the same as ending.

4. “Cathedral” — Raymond Carver

Carver makes minimalism teachable. Walk students through the final scene line by line and they’ll see how a writer earns a revelation. Strong scaffolding for the Q1 (poetry) skill of close attention.

5. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” — Gabriel García Márquez

Magical realism as a craft choice, not a gimmick. Pair with O’Connor for a unit on the grotesque.

Stories that teach narrative voice and point of view

6. “The Yellow Wallpaper” — Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The unreliable narrator, taught in 6,000 words. Students learn to track the gap between what the narrator says and what the author wants us to see. Essential before any unit on The Great Gatsby or The Remains of the Day.

7. “A Rose for Emily” — William Faulkner

The we-narrator, the time-jumbled plot, the slow gothic dread. Faulkner teaches that structure is meaning. Excellent for the Q3 prompt on how an author’s choices about narrative time shape the reader’s experience.

8. “Sonny’s Blues” — James Baldwin

First-person narration as a moral instrument. Baldwin teaches students that the narrator is also a character being judged. The final scene is one of the great endings in American literature — show it, then ask students to argue who has changed and how.

9. “Everyday Use” — Alice Walker

Two-sister stories are AP Lit gold (the comparison is built in). Walker teaches how a single object — the quilts — can hold a thesis.

Stories that teach symbol and theme

10. “The Lottery” — Shirley Jackson

The classic, for good reason. Students learn how a writer plants symbols hiding in plain sight. Best taught before showing them any commentary — let them experience the ending.

11. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” — Joyce Carol Oates

The Arnold Friend figure is the most teachable villain in the modern canon. Use this for symbolism, foreshadowing, and the question of whether the ending is literal or allegorical.

12. “Araby” — James Joyce

The epiphany story, in its founding form. Pair with “A & P” for a compact unit on the coming-of-age epiphany — students see Joyce’s DNA in every American writer who followed him.

13. “A & P” — John Updike

The American “Araby.” Sammy’s voice is a gift for teaching tone and characterization through diction.

Stories that teach the Q3 literary argument

14. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” — Herman Melville

Every AP Lit Q3 prompt asks students to argue about a character’s relationship to their world. Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to” is the perfect rehearsal text.

15. “The Things They Carried” — Tim O’Brien

Technically a chapter, but it functions as a self-contained story. O’Brien teaches the relationship between physical and emotional weight — a metaphor students can name and trace.

16. “Battle Royal” (from Invisible Man) — Ralph Ellison

The opening chapter of Invisible Man works as a stand-alone short story and teaches symbolism, race, and the unreliable-society narrator.

Stories for the end of the year (after the exam)

17. “The Garden of Forking Paths” — Jorge Luis Borges

Once the exam is over, give them Borges. Students who can handle Borges can handle anything college throws at them.

18. “The Swimmer” — John Cheever

The story of a man swimming home through suburban pools, slowly realizing time has passed without him. Cheever teaches surrealism that wears a realist mask.

19. “Brokeback Mountain” — Annie Proulx

The full short story (not the film) is a masterclass in compression. Twenty years of two lives in forty pages. For mature classes only — preview before assigning.

20. “Drown” — Junot Díaz

End the year with a contemporary voice. Díaz’s code-switching teaches students that voice and identity are inseparable craft choices.

How I sequence these across the year

If you want a tested calendar, here’s the rough order I use:

Want the full lessons?

I’ve built complete units for most of the stories above — close-reading questions, multiple-choice in the AP style, FRQ-style writing prompts, answer keys, and discussion frameworks. Every lesson has been used in real classrooms by real teachers (mine and others’). The complete AP Lit Short Story Library is in preparation as a curated bundle. In the meantime, my published guides on American Rhetoric, American Literature, and Essay Writing are on Amazon.

If you teach any of these stories and have a question about how I approach a particular passage, write to me — I read every message.