A short article from Jennifer J Smith who is also the author of The American Short Story Cycle (2018). A review of this book can be found here.
First paragraph (of the article):
This spring my alma mater, Indiana University, is offering a literature class geared toward MFAs called “The Interconnected Story Collection.” The genre—also often called the short-story cycle, the short story sequence, novel in stories, and composite novel—is, at its most basic, a collection of stories that are simultaneously interrelated and autonomous. Although not the first of its kind, the introduction of this class acknowledges two truths: (1) so much good work is being done in the genre, and (2) there has been a gap between the production of interconnected story collections within MFA programs and study of them as a literary genre.
Link: https://www.triquarterly.org/craft-essays/born-workshop-mfa-and-short-story-cycle