SOURCE: Chabries, Carole. “Fiction in a World that Exists after Terror.” Chronicle of Higher Education 48, no. 6 (5 October 2001): B7-B9.

In the following essay, Chabries discusses the significance of writers and fiction in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Last month I faced the task, as did countless teachers across the country, of teaching in the wake of September 11's terrorist attacks. I would have preferred to cancel class, to relieve both myself and my students of the burdens of coping: coping with the terrors and losses left in the wake of Tuesday's events, and coping with a discussion of those events in a public space with people who were still mostly unknown. But I also felt compelled to teach, not only because students have paid good money for me to show up, but also because I hate feeling cowardly.

Unwilling to cancel class, I nonetheless dreaded going...