at <www.sfwa.org>. This site includes a list of works awarded the organization’s
Nebula Awards and a special section, “For Educators,” with lesson plans for
specific works. Mystery Writers of America can be found at <www.mysterywrit-
ers.org>; the site has a section with advice for book clubs that suggests books
and discussion questions and lists winners of the Edgar Allan Poe Awards. The
Romance Writers of America (RWA), established in 1981, offers descriptions of
the genre and its subgenres, statistics about its industry and readers, and links to
author websites at <www.rwanational.org>; it lists winners of the annual RITA
(named for the RWA’s first president, Rita Clay Estrada) and Golden Heart (for
unpublished fiction) Awards. The Horror Writers Association at <www.horror.
org> also lists writers and winners of the Bram Stoker Awards given annually for
outstanding horror writing in various categories. These websites can also direct
students to the numerous fanzines and “prozines” (professional or industry maga-
zines) devoted to each genre; these sources offer reviews of work using criteria
appropriate to each genre.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH
- In Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (2007) Janet Burroway expresses
disdain for genre fiction: “dealing in the conventions and hackneyed phrases
of romance, horror, fantasy, and so forth can operate as a form of personal
denial, using writing as a means of avoiding rather than uncovering your real
concerns.” Students may wish to engage Burroway in an examination of one
or more examples of genre fiction. In what ways is a work escapist or not? Do
the conventions related to plot, character, and theme provide a way for readers
to avoid serious issues? Does the entertainment value or formulaic aspect of
genre fiction prevent it from addressing serious issues? - Students might want to try their hand at writing in one of the genres. After
studying several short stories or a novel, create a short story following the
conventions of the genre. Include a reflection in which you discuss the genre
aspects of the plot. What is the most important part of the story you wrote—
action, dialogue, character, or setting? Did you focus on one aspect more than
another? To what effect? In your story, do you pay equal attention to character
and plot, do you develop character at the expense of plot, or use their actions
just to further the plot? - Students interested in mystery fiction can find many fascinating topics for
exploration. Those drawn to hard-boiled fiction might read a work by Dashiell
Hammett (perhaps Red Harvest [1929] or The Maltese Falcon [1930]) or Ray-
mond Chandler (The Big Sleep [1939] or Farewell, My Lovely [1940]) and
compare it to Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series, which begins with Devil
in a Blue Dress, or Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski series, the first of which is
Indemnity Only (1982). These authors all use the hard-boiled mystery genre to
explore the dynamics of corruption. Where does that corruption originate in
each author’s view? Is it a result of greed, of prejudice, of other factors? Or, one
might compare Easy Rawlins with any of the other lead characters to examine
how an African American protagonist changes the typical plot or other aspects