Short fiction is incredibly hard to write. All the more reason to ooh and aah over every great short story, whether published in a literary journal or as a collection. I have a personal fascination with the linked short story, though that’s for my own writing purposes.
This towering stack of books represents every short story collection still in my to-be-read pile. For an author like Mavis Gallant, I bought a collection of all her work. For a debutante like Dieuwke Van Turenhout, I snatched up a copy of her short story collection that launched just a few days ago. There are anthologies and novellas, old stuff and new.
You can also find reviews of individual short stories published in literary journals. Or, if you prefer long-form fiction, then check out the reviews here.
Interstitial Spaces: Can’t and Won’t by Lydia Davis
Original Sin: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
Judge Dee: The Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik
The Art of the Story: The Art of the Story edited by Daniel Halpern
Kawaakari: Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Kawabata Yasunari
German Fables: The Marquise of O– and Other Stories by Heinrich von Kleist
Ribbons: Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Empty Pasture in Afternoon: The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Vietnam: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Carrots & Kiwis: Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
Fractured Fairy Tales: You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian
Quiet Desperation: Last Stories by William Trevor
Circus Animals: Olifanten warm houden by Dieuwke van Turenhout
Red Stick Festival: Buckskin Cocaine by Erika Wurth