For those of you guys working on the short story project option, I have mined the textbook for things you may enjoy.
Here's a few:
A&P, John Updike
Sonny's Blues, James Baldwin
Everyday Use, Alice Walker
Cathedral, Raymond Carver
A Clean Well-Lighted Place, Ernest Hemingway
Saboteur, Ha Jin
Day of the Butterfly, Alice Munro
Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut (SCIENCE FICTION!)
The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
No One's a Mystery, Elizabeth Talent
The One Who Walk Away From Omelas, Ursula Leguin (SCIENCE FICTION!)
Paul's Case, Willa Cather
Girl, Jamaica Kincaid
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
Also, if you are doing the science fiction option, you simply have to read ""Repent Harlequin!" Cried the Ticktockman." It purely awesome on the awesomeness scale. I have multiple copies.