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famous short stories by famous authors

43 of the Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language

From washington irving to kristen roupenian.

Last year, I put together this list of the most iconic poems in the English language ; it’s high time to do the same for short stories. But before we go any further, you may be asking: What does “iconic” mean in this context? Can a short story really be iconic in the way of a poem, or a painting, or Elvis?

Well, who knows, but for our purposes, “iconic” means that the story has somehow wormed its way into the general cultural consciousnessโ€”a list of the best short stories in the English language would look quite different than the one below. (Also NB that in this case we’re necessarily talking about the American cultural consciousness, weird and wiggly as it is.) When something is iconic, it is a highly recognizable cultural artifact that can be used as a shorthandโ€”which often means it has been referenced in other forms of media. You know, just like Elvis. (So for those of you heading to the comments to complain that these stories are “the usual suspects”โ€”well, exactly.) An iconic short story may be frequently anthologized , which usually means frequently read in classrooms, something that can lead to cultural ubiquityโ€”but interestingly, the correlation isn’t perfect. For instance, Joyce’s “Araby” is anthologized more often, but for my money “The Dead” is more iconic . Film adaptations and catchy, reworkable titles help. But in the end, for better or for worse, you know it when you see it. Which means that, like anything else, it all depends on your point of viewโ€”icon status is (like most of the ways we evaluate art) highly subjective.

So, having acknowledged that there’s no real way to make this list, but because this is what we’re all here to do, here are some of the most iconic short stories for American readers in the English languageโ€”and a few more that deserve to be more iconic than they are.

Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820) I agonized over whether I should pick “Rip Van Winkle” or “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” from Irving’s oeuvre. Both have many, many adaptations to their name and are so ubiquitous as to have drifted into the folklore realm. The latter certainly has more memorable recent adaptations, but the formerย  is the only one with a bridge named after it . Ah, screw it, we’ll count them both.

Edgar Allan Poe, โ€œThe Tell-Tale Heartโ€ (1843) Poe’s early stream-of-consciousness horror story, unreliable narrator and heart beating under the floorboards and all, is certainly one of the most adaptedโ€”and even more often referenced โ€”short stories in popular culture, and which may or may not be the source for all of the hundreds of stories in which a character is tormented by a sound only they can hear. (Still not quite as ubiquitous as Poe himself , though . . .)

Herman Melville, โ€œBartleby, the Scrivenerโ€ (1853) Once, while I was walking in Brooklyn, carrying my Bartleby tote bag , a woman in an SUV pulled over (on Atlantic Avenue, folks) to excitedly wave at me and yell “Melville! That’s Melville!” Which is all you really need to know about that .

Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1890) I will leave it to Kurt Vonnegut, who famously wrote , “I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read the greatest American short story, which is “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce. It isn’t remotely political. It is a flawless example of American genius, like “Sophisticated Lady” by Duke Ellington or the Franklin stove.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, โ€œThe Yellow Wallpaperโ€ (1892) Odds are this was the first overtly Feminist text you ever read, at least if you’re of a certain age; it’s become a stand-in for the idea of women being driven insane by the patriarchyโ€”and being ignored by doctors, who deem them “hysterical.” This is another one with lots of adaptations to its name, including a memorable episode of The Twilight Zone , which concludes: “Next time you’re alone, look quickly at the wallpaper, and the ceiling, and the cracks on the sidewalk. Look for the patterns and lines and faces on the wall. Look, if you can, for Sharon Miles, visible only out of the corner of your eye or… in the Twilight Zone.”

Henry James, “The Turn of the Screw” (1898) Technically a novella, but discussed enough as a story that I’ll include it here (same goes for a couple of others on this list, including “The Metamorphosis”). It has, as a work of literature, inspired a seemingly endless amount of speculation, criticism, unpacking, and stance-taking. “In comment after comment, article after article, the evidence has been sifted through and judgments delivered,” Brad Leithauser wrote in The New Yorker . Fine, intelligent readers have confirmed the validity of the ghosts (Truman Capote); equally fine and intelligent readers have thunderously established the governessโ€™s madness (Edmund Wilson).” And nothing that inspires so much interpretive interest could escape the many interpretations into other media: films, episodes of television, and much other literature.

Anton Chekhov, โ€œThe Lady with the Toy Dogโ€ (1899) Widely acknowledged as one of Chekhov’s best stories, if notย  theย  best, and therefore almost no students get through their years at school without reading it. Has been adapted as a film, a ballet, a play, a musical, and most importantly, a Joyce Carol Oates short story.

W. W. Jacobs, “The Monkey’s Paw” (1902) So iconicโ€”be careful what you wish for, is the gistโ€”that you probably didn’t even know it started out as a short story. My favorite version is, of course, the Laurie Anderson song .

O. Henry, “The Gift of the Magi” (1905) According to Wikipedia, there have been 17 different film adaptations of O. Henry’s classic short story about a couple’s thwarted Christmas; the essential formatโ€”Della sells her hair to buy Jim a watch chain; Jim sells his watch to buy Della a set of combsโ€”has been referenced and replicated countless times beyond that. I even heard Dax Shepard refer to this story on his podcast the other day, and so I rest my case.

James Joyce, “The Dead” (1914) The last story in Joyce’s collectionย  Dubliners and one of the best short stories ever written; just ask anyone who wanted to have read some Joyce but couldn’t crackย  Ulysses . (Or anyone who could crackย  Ulyssesย  too.) And let’s not forget the John Huston movie starring Anjelica Huston as Gretta.

Franz Kafka, โ€œThe Metamorphosisโ€ (1915) Everyone has to read this in school, at some pointโ€”which is probably the reason why it’s been parodied, referenced, and adapted many times in just about every format . And why not? What could be more universal than the story of the man who wakes up to find himself transformed into an enormous insect?

Richard Connell, “The Most Dangerous Game” aka “The Hounds of Zaroff” (1924) “The most popular short story ever written in English” is obviously the one about aristocrats hunting people. Widely adapted , but one of my favorite versions is the episode of Dollhouse in which a Richard Connell (no relation except the obvious) hunts Echo with a bow.

Ernest Hemingway, “The Killers” (1927) I was tempted to include “Hills Like White Elephants” because of the number of people forced to read it to learn about dialogue (happily, there are other options ), but “The Killers,” while less often anthologized, is more influential overall, and gave us not only two full length film adaptations and a Tarkovsky short but Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,” which I do think is a very good story to learn from, if not for dialogue, then for story-making.

Zora Neale Hurston, “The Gilded Six-Bits” (1933) Hurston is most famous forย  Their Eyes Were Watching God , but those who know will tell you that this story of love, marriage, betrayal, and love againโ€”which was also made into a 2001 filmโ€”is a classic, too.

Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” (1948) The short story that launched a thousand letters toย  The New Yorker โ€”or if not a thousand , then at least “a torrent . . . the most mail the magazine had ever received in response to a work of fiction.” Still taught widely in schools, and still chilling.

J. D. Salinger, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” (1948) The very first story to destroy many a young mind. In a good way, obviously.

Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950)

Bradbury’s work has thoroughly permeated pop culture; plenty of his stories are widely adapted and referenced, so I could have chosen a few others here (“The Veldt” is my personal favorite). But every year, the image of a smart house going on long after the death of its occupants becomes more chilling and relevant an image; we can’t help but keep going back to it.

Daphne du Maurier, “The Birds” (1952) I know it’s really the Hitchcock film adaptation that’s iconic, but you wouldn’t have the Hitchcock without the du Maurier.

Flannery Oโ€™Connor, โ€œA Good Man Is Hard to Findโ€ (1953) Another oft-assigned (and oft-argued-over) story, this one with so many title rip-offs .

Elmore Leonard, “Three-Ten to Yuma” (1953) I know, I know, it’s “Fire in the Hole” that gave usย  Justified , and we’re all so very glad. But “Three-Ten to Yuma” has more name recognitionโ€”after all, it was adapted into two separate and very good films, the former of which (1957) actually created contemporary slang : in Cuba, Americans are called yumas and the United States isย  La Yuma .

Philip K. Dick, “The Minority Report” (1956) As a whole, Philip K. Dick’s work has had massive influence on literature, film, pop culture, and our cultural attitudes toward technology. Most of his best-known works are novels, but when a short story gets made into a Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film, you’re basically assuring iconic status right there. (Or at least that’s how it used to work…)

James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” (1957) Baldwin’s best known short story pops up in plenty of anthologies, and can be thanked for being the gateway drug for many budding Baldwin acolytes.

Alan Sillitoe, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1959) Not only is the story itself widely known and readโ€”just ask Rod Blagojevich ( remember him? )โ€”that title has been rewritten and reused thousands of times for varying endsโ€”just ask the reporter who wrote that piece about Blagojevich. Or Adrian Tomine .

John Cheever, “The Swimmer” (1964) Cheever’s most famous story nails something essential about the mid-century American sensibility, and particularly the mid-century American suburbs, which is probably why everyone knows it (it’s also frequently anthologized). Or maybe it’s more about Burt Lancaster’s little shorts ? Either way.

Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966) Another frequently anthologized and unwaveringly excellent short story; and look, it’s no one’s fault that Laura Dern turns everything she touches iconic.

Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” (1972) Yet another story often assigned in schools (the good ones, anyway), which hopefully means one day we’ll wake up and find out that everyone has read it.

Ursula K. Le Guin, โ€œThe Ones Who Walk Away from Omelasโ€ (1973) As others have pointed out before me , Le Guin’s most read and most famous short story is almost always chillingly relevant.

Donald Barthelme, โ€œThe Schoolโ€ (1974) This one might only be iconic for writers, but considering it’s one of the best short stories ever written (according to me), I simply couldn’t exclude it.

Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (1978) Another staple of a writer’s education, and a reader’s; “are you really going to be the kind of woman who the baker wonโ€™t let near the bread?” being a kind of bandied-about shibboleth.

Raymond Carver, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (1981) I struggled choosing a Carver story for this listโ€””Cathedral” is more important, and probably more read, but “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” has transcended its own form more completely, at least with its title, which has spawned a host of echoes, including Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running , and Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank , to the point that I think it’s recognizable to just about everyone. A quick Google search will reveal that the framing has been used for almost everything you can think of. There’sโ€”and I kid you notโ€”a What We Talk About When We Talk About Books/War/Sex/God/The Tube/Games/Rape/Money/Creative Writing/Nanoclusters/Hebrew/The Weather/Defunding the Police/Free Speech/Taxes/Holes/Climate/The Moon/Waste/Cancel Culture/Impeachment/Gender/Digital Inclusions/Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease/COVID-19 . You see what I’m getting at here.

Stephen King, “The Body” (1982) Otherwise known, to the general public, asย  Stand By Me .

Amy Hempel, โ€œIn the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buriedโ€ (1983) Want to feel bad about your writing? This was the first short story Amy Hempel ever wrote.

Lorrie Moore, โ€œHow to Be an Other Womanโ€ (1985) A very very good short story that has given rise to so many bad ones.

Mary Gaitskill, “Secretary” (1988) Bad Behaviorย  is iconic as a whole , but probably the story to have most acutely permeated the wider culture is “Secretary,” on account of the film adaptation starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spaderโ€”despite the fact that it totally butchers the ending.

Amy Tan, “Rules of the Game” (1989) This story originally appeared in The Joy Luck Club , Tan’s mega-bestseller, so probably almost everyone you know has read it. The film version didn’t hurt either.

Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” (1990) Why, it’s only the most anthologized short story of the last 30(ish) years. That’s why even the people you know who haven’t picked up a book in their adult lives have read it.

Denis Johnson, โ€œEmergencyโ€ (1992) When I left New York to go get my MFA, a friend gave me a copy of Jesus’ Son with the inscription “Because everyone in your MFA will talk about it and you don’t want to be the girl who hasn’t read it. (It’s also really good).” He was not wrong.

Annie Proulx, “Brokeback Mountain” (1997) Everybody knows this storyโ€”even if they only know it from its (massively successful and influential, not to mention the true Best Picture Winner of 2006) film adaptationโ€”and not for nothing, coming out when it did, it went a long way towards making some Americans more comfortable with homosexuality. Open the floodgates, baby.

Jhumpa Lahiri, “A Temporary Matter” (1998) The story that made Lahiri a household name.

Ted Chiang, “Story of Your Life” (1998) Otherwise known asย  Arrival . (Also technically a novella.)

Alice Munro, “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” (2001) At this point, almost everyone has read at least someย  Alice Munro, right? This story is one of the best from one of the greats, and was also adapted into a fantastic but heartbreaking film,ย  Away From Her .

Kristen Roupenian, “Cat Person” (2017) Sure, it’s recent, so it’s not quite as ingrained as some of the others here, but it’s also the story that broke the internet โ€”and quite possibly the only New Yorkerย  story that thousands of people have ever read.

Finally, as is often the case with lists that summarize the mainstream American literary canon of the last 200 years, it is impossible not to recognize that the list above is much too white and male. So for our future and continuing iconography, your friends at Literary Hub suggest reading the following stories, both new and old:

Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941) Clarice Lispector, “The Imitation of the Rose” (1960) Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” (1969) Ralph Ellison, “Cadillac Flambรฉ” (1973) Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild” (1984) Bharati Mukherjee, “The Management of Grief” (1988) John Edgar Wideman, “Fever” (1990) Sandra Cisneros, “Woman Hollering Creek” (1991) Christine Schutt, “To Have and to Hold” (1996) ZZ Packer, “Brownies” (2003) Edward P. Jones, “Marie” (2004) Karen Russell, “Haunting Olivia” (2005) Kelly Link, “Stone Animals” (2005) Edwidge Danticat, “Ghosts” (2008) Yiyun Li, “A Man Like Him” (2008) Claire Vaye Watkins, “Ghosts, Cowboys” (2009) Ottessa Moshfegh, “Bettering Myself” (2013) Amelia Gray, “House Heart” (2013) Zadie Smith, “Meet the President!” (2013) Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch” (2014) Diane Cook, “The Way the End of Days Should Be” (2014) Kirstin Valdez Quade, โ€œFive Woundsโ€ (2015) NoViolet Bulawayo, “Shhhh” (2015) Mariana Enriquez, “Spiderweb” (2016) Ken Liu, “State Change” (2016) Helen Oyeyemi, “Sorry Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” (2016) Lesley Nneka Arimah, “What Is a Volcano?” (2017) James McBride, “The Christmas Dance” (2017) Viet Thanh Nguyen, “War Years” (2017) Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, “Friday Black” (2018). . .

Honestly, this list could go on forever, but let’s stop and say: more short stories of all kinds in the hands of the general public, please!

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Emily Temple

Emily Temple

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Bite-sized: 50 great short stories, chosen by Hilary Mantel, George Saunders and more

Quick and easily shared, is the short story the form for our times? Leading authors pick their favourites

โ€œThe Tributeโ€ by Jane Gardam (1980)

John McGahern and Annie Proulx are among my favourite authors, but to dispel gloom I choose this story from Jane Gardamโ€™s 1980 collection The Sidmouth Letters . Reading this gleeful story in my expatriate days, I recognised the cast of โ€œdiplomatic wivesโ€, trailing inebriate husbands through the ruins of empire. Mostly dialogue, it is a deft, witty tale in which a small kindness โ€“ though not by a diplomatic wife โ€“ pays off 40 years later. I must have read it a dozen times, to see how its note is sustained and the surprise is sprung; every time it makes me smile with delight. Hilary Mantel

โ€œThe Stone Boyโ€ by Gina Berriault (1957)

This great and underrated masterpiece is a meditation on good and evil and especially about the way that peopleโ€™s expectations and assumptions about us may wear us down and eventually force us into compliance with their view. But it is a much deeper and more biblical story than that and, like any great work of art, resists reduction. Berriault, who died in 1999, is known as a San Francisco writer. A wonderful sampling of her stories is available in Women in Their Beds: New & Selected Stories . George Saunders

โ€œThe Love of a Good Womanโ€ by Alice Munro (1998)

Among the handful of short stories closest to my heart, Iโ€™ve chosen โ€œThe Love of a Good Womanโ€ by Canadian writer Munro, from her 1998 collection of that name. Itโ€™s about a murder โ€“ probably itโ€™s a murder, because nothing is certain โ€“ and a love match that depends on keeping that murder secret. Like so many of Munroโ€™s stories, this one has the scope of a novel yet never feels hurried or crowded. The sociology of a small town in rural Ontario is caught on the wing in the loose weave of her narration; the story takes in whole lifetimes, and yet its pace is also exquisitely slow, carrying us deep inside particular moments. A woman moves among the willows beside a river at night, making up her mind. Tessa Hadley

Alice Munro.

โ€œThe Sirenโ€ by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1961)

Born in Palermo in 1896, Lampedusa was a learned prince who died before his work was published. In addition to his celebrated novel The Leopard , he left behind some short stories, including โ€œThe Sirenโ€, a mysterious masterpiece that jolts and haunts me every time I read it. It contains two narrative planes, two central protagonists, two settings, two tonal registers and two points of view. There are even two titles; though published as โ€œLa Sirenaโ€, it was originally called โ€œLigheaโ€, the name of the siren, portrayed as a 16-year-old girl. Lampedusaโ€™s description renders this fatefully seductive creature specific, vulnerable and real. Jhumpa Lahiri The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, edited by Jhumpa Lahiri, will be published on 7 March.

โ€œA Simple Heartโ€ by Gustave Flaubert (1877)

Flaubert wrote this story for his old friend and โ€œfellow troubadourโ€ George Sand. Itโ€™s the story of Fรฉlicitรฉ, an old servant-woman, and the diminishing loves in her life, the final one being a (live โ€“ at first) parrot. It has a sombre novelistic density, and is touching and tender, comic and grotesque. Control of tone is central to its effect. It also exemplifies the Flaubertian principle that irony and sympathy are not incompatible. Sand died before she was able to read it. โ€œSo it is with all our dreams,โ€ noted Flaubert. Julian Barnes

Books that look like sushi

โ€œFriendsโ€ by Grace Paley (1985)

This story tracks three friends as they visit a fourth who is dying. The women then go home on the train. It ends with a brief conversation between the narrator, Faith, and her 18-year-old son. The piece has warm intimacy as well as cold spaces within it. It captures the all-encompassing intrusion of the world and its conditioning of our day-to-day emotions, our childrenโ€™s colonisation of our hearts and our powerlessness ultimately to protect them. Its understated tone is perfectly pitched: the narrative moves gently, then soars, into either sadness, or joyful contentment โ€“ again and again. I am in this story, and so is the world. Ahdaf Soueif

โ€œMy Lifeโ€ by Anton Chekhov (1896)

This is Chekhovโ€™s longest short story and one of the very few he wrote in the first-person singular. Itโ€™s the autobiography of a young man in provincial Russia struggling to live up to his lofty ideals and being brought down by lifeโ€™s random contingencies. I actually adapted โ€œMy Lifeโ€ for a play and know it intimately. If you could only read a single Chekhov story then this is the one: all his gifts and genius โ€“ the wry, dark comedy of his voice, his unique angle on the human condition, his refusal to judge โ€“ are contained in it. William Boyd

โ€œIn the Nightโ€ by Jamaica Kincaid (1978)

Part poetic incantation, part eccentric kaleidoscopic vision, this is a story which contorts each time you read it. Born in Antigua, Kincaid invents aesthetics which are wholly unique, transfiguring human form and surroundings, in particular, the Caribbean landscapes. Here, she conveys the multiple textures of smaller islands, creating a literary geography which remains experimental, new and indefinable. Irenosen Okojie

โ€œMusic at Annahullionโ€ by Eugene McCabe (2004)

McCabeโ€™s story is set on the border between Monaghan and Fermanagh sometime in the 1950s or 60s. Two brothers and a sister are uneasily sharing a smallholding. The landscape itself and the states of sour feeling are described with sharpness and precision. When the sister announces that she would like a piano that is advertised for sale locally, one of the brothers buys it for her. But it wonโ€™t fit into the house and is left to rot outside. The failure to get the piano into the house has an extraordinary power and pathos. Its purchase has stood for all hope, and now there is no hope. The hard-won sense of despair and darkness in the final pages of this small masterpiece is memorable and chilling. Colm Tรณibรญn

Jo Ann Beard

โ€œWernerโ€ by Jo Ann Beard (2007)

Only afterwards did I discover that this was in fact a piece of densely textured reportage, but it taught me so much about how to write a short story that I will always see it as one. A young man, Werner Hoeflich, trapped by a fire, escapes by leaping from the window of his New York apartment, across the intervening gap and in through the window of the adjacent building. It has the richness of a novel, the raw and dirty grip of life and was, for me, a revelation. Fine language and a deftly conjured mood are all well and good, but fiction โ€“ of whatever length โ€“ should thrill. Mark Haddon

โ€œThe Window Theatreโ€ by Ilse Aichinger (1953)

Miscommunication, antic disposition, voyeurism, glee โ€“ this translation of one of Aichingerโ€™s most famous stories provides windows upon windows upon windows. Simply expressed and made to linger long in the mind, it was my first experience of the prizewinning Austrian writer and her dark, precise prose styling, and the start of an ongoing pursuit on my part to read more of her work. Eley Williams

โ€œThe Tell-Tale Heartโ€ by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

Poeโ€™s obsessive theme was the terror of losing sanity โ€“ never more dramatically evoked than in this masterpiece. In โ€œThe Tell-Tale Heartโ€, one of Poeโ€™s shortest โ€œtales of the grotesque and arabesqueโ€, and the one that seems most contemporary in the hallucinatory intensity of its narration, an unnamed individual commits a brutal, seemingly unprovoked murder of an old man with whom he lives, disposes of the body by dismembering and burying it beneath the floorboards of the residence they share, and succumbs to madness and self-destruction in the aftermath of guilt. Throughout, the narrator insists on his sanity: โ€œTrue โ€“ nervous โ€“ very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses โ€“ not destroyed โ€“ not dulled them.โ€ That the murder is entirely irrational is acknowledged by the murderer: โ€œObject there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture โ€“ a pale blue eye, with a film over it.โ€

Poe is a master of the โ€œunreliable narratorโ€ โ€“ a voice that speaks with devastating spontaneity and is utterly convincing โ€“ that has come to be a staple of much suspense and horror fiction in the 20th and 21st centuries. Unhampered by the literary pretensions of certain of Poeโ€™s other, longer stories, totally committed to its unrepentant pathology, and its visceral celebration of this pathology, โ€œThe Tell-Tale Heartโ€ is the very essence of Poe, as Poe is himself the very essence of the American gothic tradition. Joyce Carol Oates

โ€œAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgeโ€ by Ambrose Bierce (1890)

Many readers might come to this from the short film, made rather confusingly in French. But itโ€™s a tale set during the American civil war. Peyton Farquhar is being hanged by Union soldiers on a small bridge in Alabama. To say more might ruin the experience of reading it. When I happened on the story a few years ago, I thought I might be one of only a few intrepid readers. Of course, it is considered to be one of the best stories in American literature. Sebastian Barry

Sushi

โ€œAfter Rainโ€ by William Trevor (1996)

William Trevor has influenced me more than any other writer, and itโ€™s impossible for me to name one story by him that is an absolute favourite. I can, however, name 20 to 30 stories that I return to often. One of these is โ€œAfter Rainโ€. A woman travels alone to recover from a love that has ended too abruptly, but the wish that solitude could exorcise loneliness is as faulty as the wish that love could exorcise disappointment brought by love. The story to me is like an eye drop for the mind. It doesnโ€™t offer a resolution to lifeโ€™s muddiness, but it offers a moment of clarity. Yiyun Li

โ€œIn the Heart of the Heart of the Countryโ€ by William H Gass (1968)

The thing that is most striking about this story, aside from its restrained, grave beauty, is that it should manage to be so moving. On one level it is a dryly detailed and topographically exact portrait of a small town in the American midwest, but on another it is a devastating threnody for lost love. Gass was one of the great prose stylists, and the writing here is typically smooth and pellucid, conjuring its effects by stealth and unflagging control. Simply, and by simple means, a masterpiece. John Banville

โ€œAmerican Expressโ€ by James Salter (1988)

The temporal shifts in James Salterโ€™s short fiction are its distinguishing glory. Decades unfold inside the beat of a sentence; a single moment might linger unspoken for many pages. Time seems to concertina, expanding and contracting to open out pockets of aromatic description. In โ€œAmerican Expressโ€, a pair of venal New York lawyers make a shabby killing and embark with their riches on a playboy jaunt through Italy, where one of them takes up with a schoolgirl. The story deals in oxymorons โ€“ bitter desire, weak power โ€“ and jolts to a conclusion that is harsh, cool, indelible. Kevin Barry

โ€œParadiseโ€ by Edna Oโ€™Brien (2014)

Key to a great short story is the tension and torsion created within each sentence. โ€œParadiseโ€ combines remarkable disquiet, poetry and narrative drive. Oโ€™Brien is a phenomenal architect of landscape, both physical and human, imbuing her setting with exact detail, lush discomfort, intrigue and counterintuitive fate. The main character, a nurse, has been taken to the overseas villa of her rich lover. Not only must she learn to swim and entertain his companions, sheโ€™s interviewing โ€“ without any real prospect โ€“ for the position of wife. The story is lit with sexual chemistry, but travels a horribly misaligned path. Its true test lies in finding an exit from the female dream. Sarah Hall

โ€œHandsโ€ by Sherwood Anderson (1916)

This is a strange, dark little story. Its charm comes from the eccentricities of its subject, former schoolteacher Wing Biddlebaum, since โ€œthe story of Wing Biddlebaum is a story of handsโ€. Anderson evokes the Ohio town of Winesburg by focusing on the hands of its inhabitants. Wingโ€™s hands are โ€œslender, and forever trying to conceal themselvesโ€ and he notices how the hands of those around him are โ€œquieter, inexpressiveโ€. And itโ€™s the wandering hands of Wing Biddlebaum, who has changed his name from Adolph Myers, that leads to the storyโ€™s disturbing conclusion. Guy Gunaratne

โ€œLet It Snowโ€ by David Sedaris (2003)

Sedaris is in the fifth grade when heavy snow closes the schools. After a few days, his mother breaks down: โ€œGet the hell out of my house,โ€ she says, โ€œand stay out!โ€. The little Sedarises go off sledding and return to find the door locked against them. They peer through the window to see their mother watching TV and glugging wine. โ€˜Open the door,โ€™ they yell, โ€˜itโ€™s us!โ€™. She closes the drapes on them. โ€œThat bitch!โ€ shouts a Sedaris sister. Fun turns to fear, mild sibling savagery follows and then, suddenly, itโ€™s OK again.

A story โ€“ more memoir than fiction โ€“ that starts with the recognition that the very sight of you drives your mother to drink is attractive to me. But when it ends with that mother wading barelegged through five inches of snow to reach you, itโ€™s everything a story should be. Itโ€™s The Sound of Music / Lord of the Flies / Owl Babies in a few short pages. He is a genius. Nina Stibbe . Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe will be published by Viking on 28 March .

โ€œThe Distance of the Moonโ€ by Italo Calvino (1963)

This is a gloriously sensual story, narrated by a man who wants anotherโ€™s wife โ€“ but the true star of the show is the moon. Calvino imagines it so close it risks dipping its scales in the sea. Fishermen gather lunar milk as the protagonist writhes in unrequited love. It is a great example of magic realism โ€“ full of texture and motion and mischief and longing. Leone Ross Come Let Us Sing Anyway , by Leone Ross, is published by Peepal Tree.

Contemporary and classic tales picked by Chris Power

โ€œcivil peaceโ€ by chinua achebe (1971).

Achebe didnโ€™t write many short stories (in the preface to his 1972 collection, Girls at War , he notes that โ€œa dozen pieces in twenty years must be accounted a pretty lean harvest by any reckoningโ€), but his best are deeply memorable. โ€œCivil Peaceโ€ takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Biafran war, and gives vivid life to the luck and misfortune experienced by Jonathan Iwegbu โ€“ an incorrigible optimist in a devastated society โ€“ and the surviving members of his family.

โ€œIn a Bamboo Groveโ€ by Ryลซnosuke Akutagawa (1921)

Akutagawaโ€™s ingenious riddle of a story takes the form of seven testimonies given to a magistrate in the course of a murder investigation. A samurai has been found dead in a bamboo grove, but the narrative doesnโ€™t end with the confession of the notorious bandit Tajลmaru. Instead, two subsequent testimonies, that of the samuraiโ€™s wife and of the samurai himself, via a spirit medium, contradict each other and the banditโ€™s story, and ask the reader to turn investigator and puzzle out the truth.

Margaret Atwood.

โ€œHappy Endingsโ€ by Margaret Atwood (1983)

Alice Munro once said: โ€œI want the story to exist somewhere so that in a way itโ€™s still happening โ€ฆ I donโ€™t want it to be shut up in the book and put away โ€“ oh well, thatโ€™s what happened.โ€ Atwood articulates the same position in this fun, thought-provoking story that begins with a man meeting a woman, then offers variants of what happens next. Any ending that isnโ€™t death, she concludes, is false, and the interesting part of stories isnโ€™t what happens, but how and why.

โ€œGoing to Meet the Manโ€ by James Baldwin (1965)

A southern white deputy sheriff tries and fails to have sex with his wife. As she goes to sleep he talks about the vicious beating he gave a black protestor earlier that day, and returns to a deeper and even darker memory from his childhood: the ritual killing of a black man. After the killing, there was a picnic. Baldwin doesnโ€™t deny his character humanity, but as the storyโ€™s shocking climax shows, neither does he forgive him.

โ€œThe Garden of Forking Pathsโ€ by Jorge Luis Borges (1941)

When described in summary, there is a danger of reducing Borges to a collection of tropes: labyrinths, mirrors, invented books (he avoided โ€œthe madness of composing vast booksโ€ by pretending they exist and writing commentaries on them). But with these elements he explored some of the most thrilling ideas in fiction. Labyrinths and strange books are both present here, as is a theory of existence that anticipates the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Extraordinarily, all these elements are enfolded within an account of a wartime espionage mission.

โ€œThis Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemenโ€ by Tadeusz Borowski (1946)

From spring 1943 to summer 1944 the young Polish poet Borowski was a political prisoner in Auschwitz. His stories are some of the darkest documents in world literature. This one describes the narratorโ€™s first shift as a kapo unloading trains packed with Jewish men, women and children. Borowskiโ€™s prose alternates between a blunt numbness and image making of extraordinary power.

โ€œThe Company of Wolvesโ€ by Angela Carter (1979)

In The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter rewrote some of the best known fairytales โ€“ โ€œBeauty and the Beastโ€, โ€œSnow Whiteโ€, โ€œBluebeardโ€ โ€“ challenging their assumptions about gender, sexual cruelty and morality. In โ€œThe Company of Wolvesโ€ Red Riding Hood is no longer the meek victim of the wolf, but a woman of agency and courage who uses her sexuality to tame him.

Sushi books

โ€œWhy Donโ€™t You Dance?โ€ by Raymond Carver (1981)

The best Carver stories donโ€™t require the conventional techniques of exposition or backstory but create an extraordinary immediacy. Here we witness a man who has taken his furnishings and arranged them on his lawn: bed, couch, desk, turntable, lamp. Itโ€™s all for sale, and as the man gets drunk with a young couple looking to furnish their apartment, we can guess how he has got here. But a hangnail of the unknowable remains, and stays long in the memory.

โ€œThe Country Husbandโ€ by John Cheever (1954)

Cheever is known as a chronicler of the suburbs, but in this story the leafy neighbourhood of Shady Hill, a recurring location in his fiction, blends the domestic with something much stranger, almost magical. The story is comic (its title mirrors William Wycherleyโ€™s 1675 comedy of manners The Country-Wife ), but darker currents work beneath its surface and it builds to a stunning finale that is one of the most rapturous passages Cheever ever wrote.

โ€œAn Outpost of Progressโ€ by Joseph Conrad (1897)

Kayerts and Carlier, agents for the Great Trading Company, are โ€œtwo perfectly insignificant and incapable individualsโ€ left in charge of a remote trading station. Conrad mines a deep vein of irony as he describes their work โ€œserving the cause of progressโ€. As the story unfolds, and the men are shown to be idiotic cogs in the engine of colonialism, Conrad exposes the gap between the high-flown language of such projects (โ€œprogressโ€, โ€œcivilisationโ€, โ€œvirtueโ€) and their brutal reality.

โ€œTwilight of the Superheroesโ€ by Deborah Eisenberg (2006)

Eisenbergโ€™s story is high on the list of great literature about 9/11. Since the 1990s she has examined the effects of American power on the world and asked the question one of her characters asks here: โ€œHow far away does something have to be before you have the right to not really know about it?โ€ The attack on New York, that โ€œterrible dayโ€, although it seemed to come from nowhere, โ€œhad been prepared for a long, long time, though it had been prepared behind a curtainโ€.

Mavis Gallant

โ€œIn the Tunnelโ€ by Mavis Gallant (1971)

Sarahโ€™s father sends her from Canada to Grenoble as a way of ending her relationship with a married professor, but she ends up on the French Riviera. There she meets Roy, an ex-prison inspector, and rashly moves in with him. The storyโ€™s charge arises from a combination of wit, the awfulness of the relationshipโ€™s collapse, and Gallantโ€™s profound grasp of the psychology of love affairs. She talks about her characters in a way that makes you feel your own perceptiveness is being worked like a muscle.

โ€œThe Yellow Wallpaperโ€ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)

During her lifetime Gilman was best known for her nonfiction, and she was forgotten after her suicide. Her fiction, in particular โ€œThe Yellow Wallpaperโ€, was rediscovered in the 1970s by feminist academics. This chilling story takes the โ€œmadwomanโ€ figure of gothic fiction, memorably used by Charlotte Brontรซ in Jane Eyre , and describes her experience from the inside looking out. Having been told to avoid mental stimulation by her doctor following an episode of depression, Gilman wrote the story to โ€œconvince him of the error of his waysโ€.

โ€œThe Overcoatโ€ by Nikolai Gogol (1842)

It is uncertain whether it was Turgenev or Dostoevsky who said, โ€œWe all came out from under Gogolโ€™s โ€˜Overcoatโ€™โ€, but his influence on those writers โ€“ as well as on Tolstoy, Kafka, Nabokov, Borges and many more โ€“ is profound. The main character of this bleakly hilarious story, the downtrodden government clerk Akaky Akakievich, is arguably the first antihero in modern literature, and his doomed pursuit of a new overcoat one of the most memorably absurd quests in fiction.

โ€œSix Feet of the Countryโ€ by Nadine Gordimer (1953)

The reality of apartheid, and later the effects of its aftermath, dominates Gordimerโ€™s fiction. Here her narrator, who has escaped the tension of Johannesburg to play at farming in a rural suburb, becomes enraged when, following the death and autopsy of one of his workersโ€™ brothers, the authorities return the wrong body for burial. Despite his efforts to achieve justice, the storyโ€™s final, bitterly ironic lines reveal that he is blind to his own racism.

โ€œBig Two-Hearted Riverโ€ by Ernest Hemingway (1925)

Hemingwayโ€™s distinctive style โ€“ which John Updike described as โ€œgleaming economy and aggressive minimalismโ€ โ€“ is stunningly showcased here. Nick Adamsโ€™s journey into the Michigan backwoods is also a journey into his own war-damaged psyche, and his unwillingness to fish the deep water of the swamp a resonant evocation of trauma.

Kazuo Ishiguro.

โ€œA Village After Darkโ€ by Kazuo Ishiguro (2001)

The tension in this uncanny piece is stoked by Ishiguroโ€™s refusal to provide more than tantalising fragments of backstory. At nightfall an old man, Fletcher, arrives at a village where he once held great influence, but is now resented (โ€œI was mistaken about a lot of things,โ€ he admits). This might be an alternative Britain, or a future one. The dilapidated buildings and Fletcherโ€™s tramp-like appearance give the story a Beckettian feel, while its allegorical quality carries over to Ishiguroโ€™s novel The Buried Giant .

โ€œThe Lotteryโ€ by Shirley Jackson (1948)

Asked to describe her writing, Jackson once noted its fascination with โ€œthe uncontrolled, unobserved wickedness of human behaviourโ€. โ€œThe Lotteryโ€, in which a crowd gathers for a ceremony in the main square of a New England village on a sunny June morning, ends with one of the nastiest surprises in fiction. When the New Yorker printed the story it became the โ€œ Cat Person โ€ of its era as letters flooded in expressing admiration, disgust, and โ€“ unbelievably โ€“ concern that the gruesome story was true.

โ€œEmergencyโ€ by Denis Johnson (1991)

Johnsonโ€™s story begins in a hospital emergency room. Itโ€™s the night shift, and Fuckhead (his nickname is the only name for him we get) and Georgie are taking care of hospital business while swallowing every pharmaceutical they can get their hands on. When their shift finishes, they drive into the countryside and reality unravels completely. Johnson rides a line between the sacred and the profane, between hilarity and sadness., and writes prose that will take your breath away

โ€œArabyโ€ by James Joyce (1914)

The stories in Dubliners divide into the four stages of life, and โ€œArabyโ€ encapsulates the turbulence and humiliation of adolescence in a boyโ€™s lonely night-time journey across Dublin to buy a gift for the girl he loves.

James Joyce.

โ€œA Bright Green Fieldโ€ by Anna Kavan (1958)

If you love JG Ballard, you should read Anna Kavan. Few novelists, Ballard said, โ€œcould match the intensity of her visionโ€, and that same intensity fuels her stories. The narrator of โ€œA Bright Green Fieldโ€ claims to encounter the same, unnaturally vivid field of grass wherever she goes. Itโ€™s an unlikely candidate for a bete noire, but Kavanโ€™s descriptions of a mountain town in the gathering gloom, loomed over by โ€œthe sheer emerald wall that was the meadowโ€, create an atmosphere of powerful unease.

โ€œExtraโ€ by Yiyun Li (2003)

Granny Lin is 51, and doesnโ€™t know when everyone started calling her granny. Working as a maid at a boarding school in the Beijing suburbs she develops feelings for six-year-old Kang, a rich manโ€™s illegitimate son, an unwanted โ€œextraโ€ who โ€œhas to be got rid ofโ€. Granny Linโ€™s love is complicated; is it maternal, or is it perhaps the great romance she missed out on in her youth? Li has a Chekhovian ability to disappear from the text, allowing a remarkable intensity to develop between reader and story.

โ€œThe Husband Stitchโ€ by Carmen Maria Machado (2014)

Machado takes a grisly campfire tale (โ€œThe Green Ribbonโ€), combines it with the purported medical practice of suturing a womanโ€™s perineum with an extra stitch or two after childbirth to increase her husbandโ€™s pleasure, and creates a powerful modern fable about misogyny and motherhood. Before her wedding day, as Machado expertly builds the atmosphere of foreboding, the narrator notes that, โ€œBrides never fare well in stories. Stories can sense happiness and snuff it out like a candleโ€.

โ€œMadame Tellierโ€™s Houseโ€ by Guy de Maupassant (1881)

Maupassant, probably the only short-story writer as influential as Chekhov, wrote in two modes: short, impressively constructed but one-dimensional stories with trick endings (โ€œThe Necklaceโ€ is the most famous of these), and longer, more interesting work. He wrote โ€œMadame Tellierโ€™s Houseโ€ after a friend reported passing a brothel in Rouen with a sign on its door saying, โ€œClosed because of First Communionโ€. His expansion on this irresistible detail resulted in one of his greatest stories.

โ€œA Horse and Two Goatsโ€ by RK Narayan (1970)

Narayan, who wrote more than 200 short stories, called them โ€œconcentrated miniatures of human experience in all its opulenceโ€. The opulence of the clay horse at the centre of this story has faded beneath the Indian sun, but the conversation it triggers between an American tourist who speaks no Tamil and Muni, a poor peasant who speaks no English, is not only very funny, but also telling about the degree to which misunderstanding is an unavoidable part of human interaction.

โ€œMinutes of Gloryโ€ by Ngลฉgฤฉ wa Thiongโ€™o (1976)

This story by Kenyaโ€™s most prominent writer follows the struggles of barmaid Beatrice as she works in a succession of increasingly seedy establishments. Men prey on her, buying her body as if it were โ€œa bag of potatoes or a sack of cabbagesโ€, and her hopes of living the high life in Nairobi become more unlikely by the day. โ€œShe fought life with dreams,โ€ Ngลฉgฤฉ writes, and through a reckless action Beatriceโ€™s fantasies briefly become reality before the story reaches its sorrowful conclusion.

โ€œA Good Man Is Hard to Findโ€ by Flannery Oโ€™Connor (1953)

This story is a vicious and darkly funny account of a familyโ€™s encounter with a criminal gang led by the psychotic Misfit. Its closing lines, and the apparent act of grace they describe, are as memorable as they are ambiguous.

Akhil Sharma.

โ€œWe Didnโ€™t Like Himโ€ by Akhil Sharma (2013)

Two boys grow up together on a lane in Delhi. One, the narrator, becomes a lawyer. The other, Manshu, becomes pandit of the local temple. The narratorโ€™s burgeoning dislike for Manshu, the way the events of life bring them back into contact with one another, the Hindu burial process and the mechanics of โ€œputting someone in the Gangesโ€: these elements are so absorbingly animated that the storyโ€™s emotional impact, when it arrives, feels like an ambush.

โ€œHeads of the Colored People: Four Fancy Sketches, Two Chalk Outlines, and No Apologyโ€ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (2015)

Police shoot two black men outside a comic-book convention in LA, while halfway across the country an artist buys his daughter a cupcake at a vegan bakery. Thompson-Spiresโ€™s self-reflexive story is โ€œangry, like a big black fistโ€, but itโ€™s also breathtaking in the way it loops back and forth in time and constantly second-guesses the readerโ€™s assumptions.

โ€œSmote (or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You in Front of a Print by Bridget Riley)โ€ by Eley Williams (2015)

โ€œTo kiss you,โ€ this story begins, โ€œshould not involve such fear of precision.โ€ Williamsโ€™s story is less a stream of consciousness than a barrelling wave, as a woman debates whether or not to kiss her girlfriend in an art gallery, and all the doubt, thrill, uncertainty, hilarity and panic of love is compressed into a few seconds of indecision.

  • Short stories
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16 Famous Short Story Authors and Their Best Stories

Short stories are short pieces of fiction focused on a single plot, character, setting, and theme. Since the 1800s, famous short story authors have left their mark on literary history, preserved in books and other publications.

Table of Contents

Edgar Allan Poe

picture of Edgar Allan Poe, a well-known poet.

The influential short story writer was born in 1809. At 24, he wrote “ The Murders in the Rue Morgue ,” which set him on course as one of the most critically acclaimed writers ever. Edgar Allan later gained fame for his dark tales such as:

  • The Tell-Tale Heart
  • The Cask of Amontillado

Despite winning awards and selling out newspapers, Poe didn’t receive much recognition until after his death in 1849. Poe’s legacy lives on today, with media adaptations and literature classes studying his work.

Aside from being a short story writer, Edgar Allan Poe is also one of the most famous poets in the world .

Mark Twain is a famous American writer that is well-loved by many

This prolific author was a master of satire and a genius for creating unforgettable characters. He gained international fame for works like “ The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Humorous Tales ” and “ The Million Pound Bank Note .”

Twain also wrote scathingly honest social commentaries and admired lectures on various topics. He was also a fierce abolitionist, growing up on the border between free Missouri and slave-owning states. Newspaper stories he wrote while traveling the globe were popular reads. The American literature giant grew up as Samuel Clemens and died in 1910.

Ernest Hemingway

Ai Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway  was a Nobel Prize-winning journalist and hunter who greatly influenced 20th-century literature. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, he began his career as a writer while working as an ambulance driver during World War I. His works were known for their simplicity of language and modern themes. 

Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature for “ The Old Man and the Sea ” in 1954. Hemingway was also well known for his adventurous lifestyle, hunting abroad, and fishing expeditions. Some of his other notable works include: 

  • A Farewell to Arms (1929)
  • For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940)
  • The Sun Also Rises (1926)

Virginia Woolf

Ai Virginia Woolf

The iconic English author became one of the famous short story authors thanks to her modernist writing style. She was a member of the  Bloomsbury Group  and wrote prose works such as “ The Voyage Out ” (1915) and “ Mrs. Dalloway ” (1925). 

Her ground-breaking book “A Room of One’s Own” (1929) argued for equal opportunity for women in literature and brought the issue to international attention. 

She unhappily suffered from bouts of mental illness throughout her life, culminating in her death by drowning. 

James Joyce

Ai James Joyce

Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and playwright. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers, celebrated worldwide for using the novelistic technique in his novels. 

A driving force behind  modernism  and a revered figure to both English language literature enthusiasts and postmodernist critics, Joyce published many short stories in magazines. He eternally remains one of history’s most profound minds whose works continue to shape literature seen everywhere today.

Ambrose Bierce

Ai Ambrose Bierce

This celebrated American author’s career covered the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His writing style, which could be both cynical and darkly humorous, garnered him a strong following of devoted readers. Bierce’s most famous works include Killed at Resacaand Beyond the Wall. 

Still, he also wrote poetry, fiction, plays, essays, reviews, and letters and was widely acclaimed for his work in investigative journalism. Bierce penned several iconic war stories, such as “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ,” which many consider one of the most significant pieces of American literature. 

James Baldwin

Ai James Baldwin

James Baldwin’s works elaborated on themes of racial inequality, sexuality, and religious issues during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Born in 1924 in New York City, Baldwin struggled with his identity as an openly gay black man in America. He’s best known for his works, such as “ Going to Meet the Man and “ The Outing “.

Most of his works focused on human relationships with truth and morality during a difficult period in US  history . In addition, he gave powerful speeches discussing social justice issues through his words and advocacy for African American rights. During the latter years of his life, he became popular globally due to his genius writing skills and charitable causes.

Flannery O’Connor

Ai Flannery O'connor

The passionate American writer loved to depict the Southern lifestyle from her Catholic faith-infused perspective.  Flannery O’Connor  was born in 1925 in Georgia and published two books of short stories and two novels during her lifetime – “ Wise Blood ” and “ The Violent Bear It Away .”

O’Connor also wrote numerous letters and nonfictional essays that were later collected and published. Her works earned many prestigious awards, including the National Book Award (1972) and the National Medal of Arts in 1996. 

George Saunders

Ai George Saunder

Sander’s unique blending of humor and pathos makes him one of today’s most famous short story authors. He has written stories, essays, novellas, novels, children’s books, and screenplays which have won him critical acclaim from critics. He penned the National Magazine Award-winning work early in his career, later expanding into a novel. 

His “ Tenth of December ” publication was a significant turnaround for his career. George recently won The Man Booker Prize for his 2017 book and received numerous other awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ai Doyle

This Scottish writer became famous for creating the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. Although he published over 200 works, including novels, poems, plays, and nonfiction, many know him for his 66 detective stories.

He also wrote popular historical romances such as “ The White Company ” (1891) and produced formidable science fiction tales such as “The Lost World” (1912). Doyle was a pioneering author in crime writer who used real-life issues to create compelling mysteries. 

Despite being immensely successful as an author,  Doyle  held firm religious beliefs, which led him to become a spiritualist advocate. 

Kate Chopin

Ai Katechopin

Chopin began writing in the late 1890s after being inspired by local folk stories, Creole culture, and other famous short story authors. 

Her “ The Awakening ” is a forerunner to modern feminist literature, revealing feelings of  freedom  among women living in oppressive environments. Other works include: 

  • The Story of an Hour

Several short story collections were published posthumously. Despite initial criticism for their focus on female sexuality and free will, many consider her a trailblazer for feminist writers.

Raymond Carver

Ai Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver  was a celebrated American short story writer, poet, and essayist. He associated his work with the “dirty realism” writing style due to its focus on ordinary people. They explore complex themes such as loneliness, depression, and alcoholism. 

Carver began his career in small magazines throughout the United States before having his first book published in 1976. He won an O. Henry award for “ What We Talk About When We Talk About Love ” in 1981. He also received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize and later died from cancer in 1988.

Shirley Jackson

Ai Shirley Jackson

This hugely influential figure is known for her works that blend horror, psychological terror, and black comedy. She became famous due to her short story “The Lottery.” 

Born in San Francisco, she grew up in Rochester before graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in English.  She  later moved to North Bennington, Vermont, where she’s written most of her works, which would become literary classics. 

An ardent feminist who wrote about women’s inner lives in ways unheard of for their time, it’s no surprise her legacy continues. Jackson died at her Vermont home from natural causes on August 8th, 1965.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Ai Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte  was an American feminist, scholar, novelist, and social reformer who advocated for women’s rights to employment and education. She is best known for her short story “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” (1892), which discusses a woman’s mental health struggles. 

Gilman also wrote nonfiction works exploring issues of sex and gender roles. She wrote over two hundred poems and hundreds of other pieces on various social reform-related topics. Her efforts in influencing the world through scholarly works helped advance the cause of women everywhere during this historic time.

Anton Chekhov

Ai Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov is widely considered one of the famous short story authors, alongside Alexandr Ostrovsky and Nikolai Gogol. Born in 1860, he initially worked as a physician while writing short stories. Consequently, he marked 19th-century literature with short stories such as “ The Darling ” and “ Vanka .”

He later turned his attention to plays, producing some of his most notable works. Additionally, he wrote over 500 letters collected in 1952 and can provide insight into his life and work as a writer. His stories often used understatement to make an emotional impression rather than relying on dialogue or plot.

Washington Irving

Ai Washington Irving

This legendary figure is one of the earliest American writers to combine influences of his home country and Britain successfully. He rose to fame with tales like “ Rip Van Winkle ” and “ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ,” which not only spoke to the spirit of the people at that time but have become iconic cultural touchstones in the present day. 

Outside of writing, Washington was also an accomplished businessman and diplomat, becoming the United States ambassador to Spain from 1842-1846. As a result, Irving kept very close relationships with many influential figures, including William Cullen Bryant and James Fenimore Cooper. He broadened the literature palette through clever wordplay and sketches derived from local stories or European folklore. 

Franz Kafka

Ai Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka  was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist regarded as one of the most famous short story writers of the 20th century. Born in 1883 in Prague, his works often reflect alienation, anxiety, and isolation themes. He wrote extensively on existential topics and used his writing to address political tyranny and bureaucracy. 

Many of his works remained incomplete at his death. Kafka’s influence can still be seen today in literature, philosophy, film, visual arts, and beyond, despite his limited recognition during his lifetime. He died in 1924 after suffering from tuberculosis.

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The Best Short Story Writers of All Time

The Best Short Story Writers of All Time

Ranker Books

List of the best short story writers of all time. From Voltaire to George Saunders, a complete list of the greatest short story authors who have written works in English or whose works have been translated into English.ย  Usually, short fiction features a small cast of characters and is focused on one incident or anecdote and one overall mood, such as romance , humor , or sadness . Complex stories with sweeping timelines and superfluous characters are not often written in the short story medium, because there is simply not enough time to develop more than one or two cohesive thoughts. The best short story writers think that writing short-fiction is a completelyย separate art form than writing a novel, but some would argue that writing short stories is great practice for writing a full length work of fiction.ย 

Because of the constraints of page length, great short story writers have to use language that is descriptive and quickly sets the scene or develops their characters. Hemingway is notoriously good at short, pithy stories. One of his most famous is the world's shortest short story: โ€œFor Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.โ€ Very short stories are also known as flash-fiction.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver

Mark Twain

Nikolai Gogol

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

James Joyce

James Joyce

William Faulkner

William Faulkner

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Alice Munro

Alice Munro

O. Henry

Oscar Wilde

Jack London

Jack London

Roald Dahl

Gabriel Garcรญa Mรกrquez

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

John Cheever

John Cheever

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens.

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The best short stories ever written

Modern life is a busy affair and sometimes, a short story offers the perfect form. Escape with these groundbreaking works, both classic and modern.

50 short stories you should read

The short story, says Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Steven Millhauser, has powers the novel only dreams of. โ€œThe novel is the Wal-Mart, the Incredible Hulk, the jumbo jet of literature,โ€ he wrote in his essay,ย  The Ambition of the Short Story . โ€œ[And yet] the short story apologises for nothing. It exults in its shortness. It wants to be shorter still. It wants to be a single word. If it could find that word, if it could utter that syllable, the entire universe would blaze up out of it with a roar. That is the outrageous ambition of the short story, that is its deepest faith, that is the greatness of its smallness.โ€

Many of history's finest novelists have tried their hand at the short story, and some are even best-known for their prowess in this form.ย Think ofย  John Cheever ,ย  Katherine Mansfield ย andย  Tessa Hadley , all of whom appear on this list. Elsewhere, short stories offer unfamiliar readers an opportunity to dip their toe into a writer's style, or else see a different side of them altogether:ย  James Joyce ,ย  Carson McCullers ย andย  Ian McEwan , arguably best-known for their novels,ย can all be accessed in a different way through their short fiction.ย 

Readers continue to show a huge appetite for the short story and it's no wonder when modern writers such asย  Lauren Groff ,ย  Daisy Johnson ย andย  Ottessa Moshfegh ย have turned out some of the most critically-acclaimed collections of recent years. There have even been viral short story sensations: 2017'sย  Cat Person , a tale of romance gone wrong, capturedย the cultural zeitgeist and sparked conversations around the world immediately after its publication in theย  New Yorker .

So, without further ado, here are 50 of literature's greatest short stories to entertain, distract, reassure and inspire โ€“ just what a short story should do.ย 

What did you think of this article? Emailย  [email protected] ย and let us know.

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Best Short Stories and Collections Everyone Should Read

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Best short stories and collections everyone should read.

Best Short Stories and Collections Everyone Should Read

If you are on the lookout for great storytelling but donโ€™t want to commit to a full-length novel, then short story collections are the answer. Whether itโ€™s just before bed, during your commute, or waiting to see your doctor, small chunks of time are perfect for reading short stories.

Here we have gathered thirty-one of the best short stories and collections , from all sorts of backgrounds and sources, to help you grow your โ€œTo Be Readโ€ pile.

For your convenience, we've divided this post into two parts: 1. the ten best free short stories to read right now , and 2. best short story collections. Feel free to jump to the section that you prefer!

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great short stories out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized short story recommendation ๐Ÿ˜‰

Which short story should you read next?

Discover the perfect short story for you. Takes 30 seconds!

Free Short Stories to Read Right Now

These individual short stories are the best of the best โ€” and the even better news is that they're available for free online for you to peruse. From classics published in the 1900s to a short story that exploded in late 2017, here are ten of the greatest free short stories for you to read.

1. โ€œLamb to the Slaughterโ€ by Roald Dahl

While not exactly a philosophical or political tale like our first two examples, this twisty short story from Dahl does delve into some shady moral territory. We are introduced to Mary Maloney: a loving wife and dedicated homemaker. In just a few short paragraphs describing how she welcomes her husband home, Dahl makes us sympathize with Mary โ€” before a rash act turns her life upside down and takes the reader with her on a dark journey.

For those who havenโ€™t read it, we wonโ€™t spoil the rest. However, itโ€™s safe to say that Dahl serves up a fiendish twist on a platter.

2. โ€œThe Lotteryโ€ by Shirley Jackson

A perennial feature in many a high school syllabus, Shirley Jacksonโ€™s best-known short story clinically details an unusual ritual that takes place in a small town. Thereโ€™s not exactly a lot of plot to spoil in The Lottery โ€” but within a few short pages, Jackson manages to represent the mob mentality that can drive reasonable people to commit heinous acts.

3. โ€œHow to Become a Writerโ€ by Lorrie Moore

Told in the second person point of view , this story from Mooreโ€™s debut anthology Self-Help takes an honest look at the inner life of a struggling artist. Through the use of an unusual POV, the author manages to turn her reader into a confidante โ€” making it abundantly clear that the โ€˜youโ€™ the narrator is speaking about is actually herself.

This story is a standout, but the entire collection is well worth a read for its insight, humor, and disregard for literary norms.

4. โ€œCat Personโ€ by Kristen Roupenian

In the Social Media Age, no short story has gone viral the way this New Yorker contribution from Roupenian has. Arriving at the height of #MeToo, it begins with 20-year-old Margot embarking on the early stages of flirtation with an older man, Robert. As she gets to know more about this man (as well as filling in the gaps with her imagination), the power dynamic in their relationship starts to fluctuate.

Lauded for its portrayal of Margotโ€™s inner life and the fears many modern women face when it comes to dating, it also has its fair share of detractors โ€” many are critical of the central character, some are downright outraged by the storyโ€™s success. Still, this story undeniably struck a chord with the reading public, and will likely remain relevant for some time.

5. โ€œCathedralโ€ by Raymond Carver

First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981, โ€œCathedralโ€ is today known as one of Raymond Carverโ€™s finest works. When it opens, we meet a narrator whose wife is expecting a visit from an old friend, a blind man. Dissatisfied and distrusting of people not like him, our narrator struggles to connect until the blind man asks him to describe a cathedral to him.ย 

ย โ€œCathedralโ€ is one of Carverโ€™s own personal favorites, and deservedly so. His characteristic minimalist style is devastating as the story builds up to a shattering moment of emotional truth โ€” an ultimate reminder that no-one else can capture the quiet sadness of working-class people like him.ย 

6. โ€œA Good Man Is Hard to Findโ€ by Flannery Oโ€™Connor

Innocuously titled, โ€œA Good Man Is Hard to Findโ€ is nevertheless Flannery Oโ€™Connorโ€™s bleakest โ€” and most famous โ€” work. It begins unassumingly with a Southern family whoโ€™s planning to go on a road trip. Yet the journey is rudely interrupted when their car overturns on an abandoned dirt road โ€” and they are met by an enigmatic group of three men, coming up over the far hill.ย 

This short story inspired some strong reactions from the public upon publication โ€” and the conversation continues today as to its frank depiction of the nature of good and evil. Again, we wonโ€™t spoil anything for you, except to say that โ€œA Good Man Is Hard to Findโ€ is well worth your time.ย 

7. โ€œSymbols and Signsโ€ by Vladimir Nabokov

The famous author of Lolita wrote โ€œSigns and Symbolsโ€ in 1948. Its premise is seemingly simple: an elderly couple visits their mentally ill son in the sanatorium in America. Yet their background and trials come into sharp focus as the story develops, until an explosive ending disrupts everyoneโ€™s peace of mind.ย 

As you might expect, the somber โ€œSymbols and Signsโ€ diverges sharply from Lolita in terms of both tone and subject โ€” but its ending will keep you awake at night thinking about its implications.ย ย 

8. โ€œSticksโ€ by George Saunders

Not so much a short story as it is flash fiction, โ€œSticksโ€ is written from the perspective of a young man whose father has an unusual habit: dressing up a crucifix thatโ€™s built of out a metal pole in the yard. One of Americaโ€™s greatest living short story writers, George Saunders explained: "For two years I'd been driving past a house like the one in the story, imagining the owner as a man more joyful and self-possessed and less self-conscious than myself. Then one day I got sick of him and invented his opposite, and there was the story."ย 

The result is a masterful piece of fiction that builds something out of seemingly nothing โ€” all in the space of only two paragraphs.ย 

9. โ€œThe Veldtโ€ by Ray Bradbury

If thereโ€™s anyone who you can trust to deliver thought-provoking, terrifying science fiction on the regular, itโ€™s Ray Bradbury. In โ€œThe Veldt,โ€ George and Lydia Hadley have bought an automated house that comes with a โ€œnursey,โ€ or a virtual reality room. Worried about the nurseryโ€™s effect on the kids, George and Lydia think about turning off the nursey โ€” but the problem is that their children are obsessed with it.ย 

As an ominously prescient prediction of the downside of technology, โ€œThe Veldtโ€ is a short and shining example of how Ray Bradbury was an author before his time.ย 

10. โ€œFlowers for Algernonโ€ by Daniel Keyes

In this classic short story, we are privy to the journals of Charlie Gordon, a cleaner with an IQ of 68. ("I reely wantd to lern I wantid it more even then pepul who are smarter even then me. All my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb.โ€) Charlieโ€™s luck changes when he is selected for an experiment that purports to turn him into a genius โ€” but everything that goes up must come down in the end.ย 

โ€œFlowers for Algernonโ€ won the Hugo Award in 1960 for its groundbreaking presentation. Heartbreaking and rich with subtle poignance, it is likely to remain a staple for centuries to come.ย ย 

Best Short Story Collections to Devour

If you'd like many short stories at your fingertips all at once, short story collections are where you should look. Here, we've collected 21 of the best short story collections โ€” along with the standout story in each volume.

11. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œA Manual for Cleaning Womenโ€

12. Blow-up and Other Stories by Julio Cortรกzar

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œHouse Taken Overโ€

13. Drifting House by Krys Lee

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œDrifting Houseโ€

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14. Dubliners by James Joyce

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Deadโ€

15. Everythingโ€™s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œRiding the Bulletโ€

16. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Garden of Forking Pathsโ€

17. Florida by Lauren Groff

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œAbove and Belowโ€

18. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Flints of Memory Laneโ€

19. Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Pigโ€

20. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œSamsa in Loveโ€

21. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œFor Esme - With Love and Squalorโ€

22. Rashลmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryลซnosuke Akutagawa

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œIn a Bamboo Groveโ€

23. Runaway by Alice Munro

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œRunawayโ€

24. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcรญa Mรกrquez

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Trail of Your Blood in the Snowโ€

25. The Collected Stories by Grace Paley

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œA Man Told Me the Story of His Lifeโ€

26. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œHills Like White Elephantsโ€

27. The Complete Stories by Flannery Oโ€™Connor

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œA Good Man is Hard to Findโ€

28. The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Lady with the Dogโ€

29. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œIโ€™d Love You to Want Meโ€

30. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œThe Thing Around Your Neckโ€

31. The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferrรฉ

famous short stories by famous authors

Standout Story: โ€œWhen Women Love Menโ€

Ready to write your own short story? Check out these short story ideas for all your inspiration needs.

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Free course: How to Write a Short Story

10 lessons to turn your story idea into a sparkling piece of short fiction.

Erica Fransisca

10 famous short stories you can read online.

Famous short stories you can read online for free

Do you ever want to read famous literary work, but find it hard to actually make the time to sit down and open a book? I know I do sometimes. The good news is, there are plenty of famous short stories by renowned authors youโ€™re probably familiar with. Many of them are available online!

Iโ€™ve compiled here some of my own favorites, plus a synopsis for each and why I think youโ€™d enjoy them.

Here are some famous short stories that you can read online for free :

1. โ€˜The Lotteryโ€™ by Shirley Jackson

Best known for her horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House, Jacksonโ€™s short story is not any less chilling. It starts by describing a village and its annual lottery. Weโ€™re introduced to the village families and taken through their rituals. By the time we realize what the Lottery entails, however, itโ€™s already too late for the โ€˜winnerโ€™.

I love the eeriness and that it reminds us how blindly following tradition can be dangerous.

You can read โ€˜The Lotteryโ€™ in the New Yorker , where it was first published back in 1948.

2. โ€˜Lamb to the Slaughterโ€™ by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is the British writer who has created many of our childhood favourites. From Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the recently filmized The BFG . Not surprisingly, he has written his share of famous short stories.

This is about a wife who kills her husband and hides the murder weapon in such an unexpected way that the investigating policemen will probably never, ever, find it.

โ€˜Lamb to the Slaughterโ€™ is a brilliant example of black comedy. I loved it exactly because of the simple language that takes such a dark theme and portrays it with misplaced lightness and humour.

You can read it here .

3. โ€˜A Very Old Man with Enormous Wingsโ€™ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Marquez is arguably one of the most successful Latin American writers. If you havenโ€™t read his longer works, this short story might convince you to start doing so.

A winged old man appears in a coupleโ€™s backyard and what follows is their response, which in turn exposes the capacity for cruelty that lies in us all. I think itโ€™s an important reminder of what a person can become if theyโ€™re suddenly handed power over the weak.

Itโ€™s available to read here .

4. โ€˜The Second Bakery Attackโ€™ by Haruki Murakami

Another eccentric work by Murakami. Itโ€™s always hard to describe what his books are about, and this oneโ€™s no different. This one centers around a newly married couple who wakes up hungry one night. The husband suddenly tells his wife that he once attacked a bakery, and she convinces him to do a second one.

What follows become a study in the relationship dynamics, past actions and being in control of oneโ€™s fate.

See what you think after you read it here .

5. ‘Shooting an Elephant’ by George Orwell

From one of the more important pioneers of modern dystopian novels is this metaphorical story of British imperialism. Itโ€™s unknown to what extent โ€˜Shooting an Elephantโ€™ is autobiographical, considering it was published as an essay.

It describes the English narratorโ€™s experience shooting an elephant, only because heโ€™s coaxed by the Burmese crowd behind him. Itโ€™s sad and poignant, especially as we see his genuine anguish at watching the great elephant fall and suffer.

Itโ€™s available for free here .

6. โ€˜The Eggโ€™ by Andy Weir

Iโ€™m sure most of you know of The Martian film featuring Matt Damon. Well, the author who wrote the book it was adapted from has a famous short story called โ€˜The Eggโ€™.

Only 1000 words and comprised almost entirely of dialogue, itโ€™s a rather quick read. Though it will leave you thinking about it still. Itโ€™s clever and thought-provoking, scary and comforting at the same time. What I enjoyed most about this story: we make our own meaning out of it.

Itโ€™s been translated into over 30 languages by readers. Theyโ€™re all available in Weirโ€™s own website along with the original English version.

7. โ€˜ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgeโ€™ by Ambrose Bierce

Unlike others in this list, Bierce is popular for his short stories. Heโ€™s a prolific writer and journalist, and I think you shouldnโ€™t miss this one. I read this a few years ago and still remember how haunting and beautiful it was.

Set during the Civil War, it begins when a man is being prepared for execution. The non-linear narrative blurs his memories with the present time, and the mind with reality. I donโ€™t want to say too much as itโ€™s the kind of plot that you need to discover for yourself.

Check the story out on Project Gutenberg .

8. โ€˜Premium Harmonyโ€™ by Stephen King

This is a heart-breaking story by Stephen King, perhaps the most influential horror writer of today. It follows the failing marriage of a couple who canโ€™t stop arguing about trivial things, until a tragedy happens.

It was the ending that really hit me, not necessarily because I didnโ€™t see it coming, but because of how our protagonist handled it. The story is also set in Castle Rock, Kingโ€™s fictional town that features is many of his works.

Itโ€™s published in the New Yorker .

9. โ€˜Three Questionsโ€™ by Leo Tolstoy

We probably know Tolstoy from his long works, including the 1,225-paged War and Peace. Turns out he also writes short stories.

Written in the style of a parable, โ€˜Three Questionsโ€™ is about a king endeavours to find the answers to three questions he thinks are the key to success.

10. โ€˜The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelasโ€™ by Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin is highly regarded for her sci-fi and fantasy series, which I have yet to read. But if theyโ€™re anything like her short story, then I have only high expectations.

Omelas, a city of perfect utopia, is revealed to thrive only because of the continuous misery of a single child. It proposes that no matter how it appears, happiness simply cannot exist without suffering.

Itโ€™s not too long and you can read it here .

I hope you enjoy these famous short stories as much as I do!

If you want something even shorter that will take less than 5 minutes, try my flash fiction A Modern Tale of Kinship !

Famous short stories you can read online

20 Great American Short Stories

We hope you enjoy reading these stories (there are actually thirty). They represent the first collection published at American Literature. You may also enjoy Favorite Short Story Collections or search The Short Story Library

You may also be interested in The Short Story of the Day and 25 Great American Novels

The Little Match Girl

  • The Gift of the Magi (1905) by O. Henry This tender story -- one of the most famous titles in the short story genre -- is a must-read. The story is about a young couple and how they meet the challenge of buying each other a Christmas gifts when they don't have enough money. This sentimental tale has a moral lesson and is widely enjoyed during Christmastime and the holiday season. Study Guide
  • The Little Match Girl (1845) by Hans Christian Andersen This is a special seasonal selection for The Holiday Season. It's a story to read for perspective, and is also featured in our Christmas Stories collection. Study Guide
  • To Build a Fire (1908) by Jack London A classic Man versus Nature story set in the Yukon Territory in Northwestern Canada. "The dog did not know anything about thermometers" but it had the sense to know "that it was no time for travelling." A brilliant story to read in the depth of winter when a freezing spell is in the forecast or gripping your region.
  • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890, 1891) by Ambrose Bierce A short story masterpiece: This a suspenseful story about a Civil War soldier, Petyon Farquhar, who has been captured by enemy troops. The story opens in a dangerous predicament, with the soldier about to be hanged, "A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama ... A rope closely encircled his neck." Will Farquhar succeed in his effort to make a daring escape? Study Guide

The Cask of Amontillado

  • A Dark Brown Dog (written 1893, published 1901) by Stephen Crane This a powerful and well written tale of sorrow. The story -- depending on the reader -- can operate on at least two levels; as a simple story about a dog, a child and crushing cruelty. It may also be interpreted as an allegorical social criticism after the American Civil War. Either way, it's a powerful, sad story.
  • The Monkey's Paw (1902) by W.W. Jacobs Three wishes and a Monkey's paw. What could go wrong? A horror story in the short story form. And I quote: "The first man had his three wishes. Yes," was the reply, "I don't know what the first two were, but the third was for death. That's how I got the paw."
  • The Cask of Amontillado (1846) by Edgar Allan Poe A classic revenge story in the horror genre. The story is set in an unspecified Italian city, the protagonist, Motressor believes he has suffered a thousand slights and injuries at the hand of his friend. Montressor invites -- rather tricks --his friend, Fortunato , into tasting some wine stored back at his pallazo in the wine cellar.
  • Eve's Diary (1906) by Mark Twain Mark Twain's take on the battle of the sexes is funny and witty and brilliant as he writes once from Eve's perspective and then follows-up from Adam's. A sample observation from Eve, "He talks very little. Perhaps it is because he is not bright..." I recommend starting with Eve first, then move over to the companion piece, Extracts from Adam's Diary .

The Story of An Hour

  • The Story of an Hour (1894, 1895) by Kate Chopin This dramatic short story -- an early entrant in feminist literature -- was very controversial when published in 1894. It suggests a possibility that people of that era were more comfortable rejecting rather than considering. The story still has the power to make modern readers uncomfortable. But please note that it is possible and sometimes even desirable to criticize an aspect of something to point out a nuanced feature; a quick mind can illuminate part of an arrangement without condemning the entire arrangement. I believe that is what Chopin did here. This suspenseful and climactic story will take you on an emotional journey. Study Guide
  • The Luck of Roaring Camp (1868) by Bret Harte The hard-luck life of hard-hearted miners changes with the birth of Thomas Luck who draws on the heart strings of the rough and tumble miners of Roaring Camp. Featured in our Civil War Stories
  • Regret (1897) by Kate Chopin A beautiful story hinting at the depths of a woman's emotional complexity. A great short story, one that could easily be misunderstood by modern feminists.
  • The Skylight Room (1906) by O. Henry This one was selected for its simple poignancy.
  • A Horseman in the Sky (1889) by Ambrose Bierce Another interesting story from Ambrose Bierce. This one is also set during the American Civil War. I classify this one under man versus himself. Study Guide
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) by Washington Irving One of the early American classics, and don't forget its famous companion Rip Van Winkle .
  • My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832), Young Goodman Brown (1835), and The Minister's Black Veil (1832) by Nathaniel Hawthorne All three of these stories are important examples of Hawthorne's contribution to the genre of Dark Romanticism, and should be read. The first one is my favorite of the three. If you are having trouble understanding the stories, it might be helpful to visit Hawthorne's Home Page for some background, and The Minister's Black Veil Study Guide
  • The Cactus (1882) by O. Henry A classic dose of O. Henry coming straight at you. Short and direct. Communication is important.
  • The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe "Me crazy? Not at all. Let me prove my sanity by describing how carefully and ingeniously I murdered my victim!"

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

  • The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865) by Mark Twain The famous story of Dan'l Webster the frog, and his anticipated performance in the jumping contest.
  • Scarlet Stockings (~1869) by Louisa May Alcott "[ Belle Morgan ] does and says what she likes, is very blunt and honest, has ideas and principles of her own, goes to parties in high dresses, won't dance round dances, and wears red stockings, though Mrs. Plantagenet says it's fast." Independent, assertive, and clad in scarlet stockings. Lennox is helpless to resist.
  • An Angel in Disguise (1851) by T.S. Arthur A sentimental story about love and kindness: "A bond had already corded itself around them both, and love was springing into life."
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener (1856) by Herman Melville A widely read story, one of Melville's finest examples of Dark Romanticism, whose interpretation has been widely debated. If you figure out what it means, please let us know!
  • The Purloined Letter (1844) by Edgar Allan Poe Poe again, this time with an early entry into the genre of detective stories. Also consider The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget
  • A Jury of Her Peers (1917) by Susan Glaspell This short story is based on a murder story that Glaspell covered as a young reporter. It's adapted from her play Trifles which is a selection on the High School list. Read the story and please share it if you like it, Glaspell deserves to be more widely known.

The Split Cherry Tree

  • On the Gull's Road (1908) by Willa Cather A love story complicated by circumstance and protocol.
  • The Lottery (1948) by Shirley Jackson A comprehensive summary of The Lottery , Jackson's dramatic and suspenseful short story. This story was probably intended as an allegorical lesson but it sparked controversy and even outrage across the United States, particularly in rural communities like the one where the story takes place.
  • Thank You, M'am (1958) by Langston Hughes A comprehensive summary of Thank You, M'am . A compassionate story about what happens when a young boy tries to rob the wrong woman! Forgiving, yet firm: we should all be like Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.

The Lady, or the Tiger?

  • The Split Cherry Tree (1939) by Jesse Stuart A comprehensive summary of The Split Cherry Tree . TIn this widely read story, set in the rural hills of Kentucky in the 1930s, young Dave Sexton finds himself trapped between the modern world that demands an education and his father's past where hard work may have held more value than "book learning." A conflict arises when he is punished by his teacher, and Dave's father Luster has to make a determination about the value of education.
  • The Cat (1901) by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Freeman's cunning in crafting this tale is well matched to the cat's marvelous waiting powers, hunting for its prey and anticipating the return of its master.
  • The Lady, or the Tiger? (1882) by Frank Stockton The princess has a difficult choice to make. This iconic story has become a catchphrase to describe a problem that has no solution.
  • The Night Came Slowly (1895) by Kate Chopin "The night came slowly, softly, as I lay out there under the maple tree."

Ready for more? You may enjoy our Favorite Short Stories Collection . Only have five minutes to spare? Try one of these Short Short Stories , sorted to suit your mood.

Return to American Literature Home Page

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The top 20 short story collections

From anton chekhov to ali smith, these authors have nailed the art of the short story. charlotte cripps picks the best, article bookmarked.

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famous short stories by famous authors

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T here is nothing more appealing, particularly when time is limited, than dipping into a short story collection.

And just because this genre is written in fewer words than a novel, it doesnโ€™t mean itโ€™s any less potent.

The short story can be a mechanism for writers to explore and find their own voice. For others, the themes in a short story can gestate and make it into their greatest novel.

Some writers are simply more prolific at short story writing, while others just donโ€™t have time to write a novel, finding short stories less of a commitment.

Here, we round up 20 of the best short story collections for those who want an enduring story in fewer pages.

Dancing Girls and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaidโ€™s Tale author โ€“ whose sequel, The Testaments, is out on 10 September โ€“ reveals the complexities of human relationships in ordinary peopleโ€™s lives in her occasionally violent short story collection. Standout stories include โ€œThe Man from Marsโ€, in which a college student with a creepy stalker almost comes to appreciate this unhealthy obsession, when it gives her the attention that is lacking in her mundane life.

The Collected Short Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald

This career-spanning collection of stories brings together the Tender Is the Night authorโ€™s most famous stories, including โ€œThe Diamond as Big as the Ritzโ€. This sinister fantasy tale about the perils of fabulous wealth is a topic he explored in greater depth later, especially when writing his best-known novel The Great Gatsby .

Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is better known for childrenโ€™s books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , but these creepy, tense and dark stories are a real treat for adults. A highlight is โ€œMrs Bixby and the Colonelโ€™s Coatโ€, about a married woman who pawns a mink coat her lover gave her, with a jaw-dropping twist at the end. Alfred Hitchcock directed the screen version.

The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

This is the third and most revered short story collection by the pioneering modernist writer, whose psychologically in-depth characters tend to have sudden epiphanies. It was written towards the end of Katherine Mansfieldโ€™s short life (she died aged 34 of tuberculosis), and includes the title story, one of her best-known works. In it, the wealthy Sheridan family prepares for a picnic, and through this seemingly mundane affair, the author deals with issues of life and death as well as the British class system.

The Acid House by Irvine Welsh

The Trainspotting authorโ€™s first collection of short stories is a real page-turner, bursting with colourful characters and humour. He plays with surrealism and fantasy in standout stories including the title story, about a football hooligan on an acid trip and a pregnant feminist on her way to the hospital who are struck by lightning. In โ€œEurotrashโ€, a Scottish junkie hangs around Amsterdam in typically hopeless, Trainspotting fashion.

Top 20 short story collections

First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan

The author admitted that his first published work allowed him to experiment and discover his voice. The perverse and ominous stories in this collection are linked by a theme of adolescence and include โ€œButterfliesโ€ , in which a man has a sordid meeting with a girl who he then drowns. The man describes the murder himself, and is alarmingly void of emotion when doing so.

Public Library by Ali Smith

The Man-Booker shortlisted author of Autumn and How To Be Both defends UK public libraries against threats of mass closures in her most recent, must-read short story collection. All of the characters in its 12 stories are passionate about books. Highlights include โ€œThe Ex-Wifeโ€, in which Katherine Mansfield becomes the other woman in a relationship, when the narrator feels left out of his partnerโ€™s life as she researches the famous authorโ€™s life and works.

Recommended

  • 30 best childrenโ€™s books: From Peter Rabbit to Artemis Fowl
  • Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls, book review: Utterly heartfelt
  • Best YA books for readers of all ages

Nine Stories by JD Salinger

The American author of The Catcher in the Rye was deeply affected by his experiences as a soldier in the Second World War, and this is reflected in his writings. This collection includes two of his most famous short stories โ€“ โ€œA Perfect Day for Bananafishโ€, about a combat veteran recently discharged from an army hospital, and โ€œ For Esmรฉ โ€“ with Love and Squalorโ€, a tribute to those former Second World War soldiers suffering from PTSD.

The Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro

The master of the contemporary short story won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, at the age of 82. She started writing short stories when she was at home with three young children and didnโ€™t have time to write a novel. Her 2004 collection contains stories about 12 women whose romantic lives are derailed by broken marriages and betrayed affections.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Angela Carter made it very clear that her intention was not to do โ€œhorrible, โ€˜adultโ€™ fairy talesโ€ but to โ€œextract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new storiesโ€. These dark and sensual new tales include the famous title story, which acts more like a novella within the collection. This gruesome story is about a beautiful young girl who finds the bodies of her husbandโ€™s previous wives in a castle chamber.

Dubliners by James Joyce

The authorโ€™s only short story collection, which is taken up largely by the subject of death, nearly never made it into print. One publisher even burnt the manuscript when he changed his mind about publishing it. Highlights include โ€œEvelineโ€, about a girl deciding between staying at home like a dutiful daughter or leaving Dublin with her lover. โ€œThe Deadโ€ is considered his best short work and a masterpiece of modern fiction.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Carverโ€™s breakthrough short story collection is a punchy and concise portrait of the lives of people ambling along in middle America. The writer digs deep into the themes of friendship and heartache with his use of vivid dialogue. The unedited version of the stories were first published after his death under the title โ€œBeginnersโ€, with the approval of Carverโ€™s widow.

The Collected Stories by Jean Rhys

In 1945, Jean Rhys said that her stories were โ€œtoo bitter... and besides, who wants short stories?โ€ She found fame in 1966 with her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , which went unpublished for over 20 years. Her stories draw on autobiographical material, moving between the Caribbean, London and Paris โ€“ all places where she lived โ€“ and the characters are mostly women living life on the periphery of an indifferent society, dealing with alcoholism, doomed relationships and poverty.

The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is best-known for his poem โ€œThe Ravenโ€, but fans of his Gothic tales of horror will love these macabre stories that include โ€œThe Fall of the House of Usherโ€, in which a brother buries his sister alive in the family tomb, and one of Poeโ€™s best known short stories, โ€œTell-Tale Heartโ€, in which the narrator tries to convince the reader of his sanity while describing a murder.

Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka is a master of the short story and never finished any of his full-length novels. This collection, published in Kafkaโ€™s lifetime, brings together the few works that he actually wanted to be published. It includes his most famous story, โ€œMetamorphosisโ€, about a manโ€™s alienation when he turns into a beetle, and โ€œThe Judgementโ€, which Kafka saw as one of his most perfect literary creations. He instructed his executor to burn all his unpublished writing after his death โ€“ but this was not upheld. These stories can be found in The Burrow .

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

This posthumous collection by the author of For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea includes a foreword by his sons, as well as the classic First Forty-Nine Stories and a number of other stories. Considered to be one of his best stories is โ€œThe Snows of Kilimanjaroโ€ about Harry, a writer dying of gangrene while on Safari in Africa, who is musing on his life experiences. It was turned into a 1952 film starring Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward, with an extra part written especially for Ava Gardener.

The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde

Though he is best known for his novels and plays, Oscar Wildeโ€™s stories for children are fairytales for any age group. Wilde, who believed it was โ€œthe duty of every father to write fairytales for his childrenโ€, enjoyed reading โ€œThe Selfish Giantโ€ to his two sons. The collectionโ€™s title story is about a statue who asks a swallow to strip him of all the jewels and gold leaf on his body, to help the poor โ€“ a tale which canโ€™t fail to make you cry.

Mouthful of Birds by Samantha Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

The Argentinian writerโ€™s novel Fever Dream made the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017. Her debut collection of eerily unnerving and nightmarish short stories translated into English includes Headlights , in which a jilted bride is dumped at a roadside petrol station by her new husband โ€“ along with lots of other rejected women. In the title story a young womanโ€™s transformation from a teenager involves her eating live birds, much to the disgust of her parents.

Selected Stories by Anton Chekov

Considered the greatest short story writer, Chekov collated his 30 best stories into this collection. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky โ€“ who translated War and Peace , Doctor Zhivago , and Anna Karenina โ€“ it includes โ€œThe Lady with the Dogโ€, about an adulterous affair that turns to love.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

These 12 melancholic short stories, from the Orange Prize -winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun , focus largely on the lives and experiences of Nigerian women. Standout stories include Imitation , in which a young motherโ€™s new life in Philadelphia is turned upside down when she finds out that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home, and the title story, about the loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to America.

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Interesting Literature

Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read

The best modernist stories selected by Dr Oliver Tearle

A number of modernist novels are praised as among the greatest novels of the twentieth century: James Joyceโ€™s Ulysses , Virginia Woolfโ€™s Mrs Dalloway , and Joseph Conradโ€™s novella Heart of Darkness , to offer just three examples. But modernist fiction had its origins in the short story form, and many of its finest statements about art and the world are to be found in short stories. Below we introduce seven of the most definitive and must-read modernist short stories. Would you add any authors or stories to this list of the best modernist short stories, or would you substitute any of our choices for a different story?

1. Katherine Mansfield, โ€˜ The Garden Party โ€™.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was the one writer Virginia Woolf was jealous of , according to Woolf herself. Mansfield never wrote a full-length novel, but wrote a number of classic modernist short stories. This story, from 1920, is probably her most famous: it focuses on a young woman, Laura Sheridan, whose family is holding a garden party at their home in New Zealand. Shortly before the guests arrive, tragedy strikes: one of their neighbours from the poor part of the village dies in an accident.

The story is told in a spare, simple style, but with moments of trademark modernist features: in particular, stream of consciousness and the idea of the โ€˜epiphanyโ€™ or moment of consciousness. Weโ€™ve offered a short summary and analysis of โ€˜The Garden Partyโ€™ here .

2. James Joyce, โ€˜ The Dead โ€™.

The concluding story in Joyceโ€™s 1914 collection Dubliners , and by far the longest story in the book, โ€˜The Deadโ€™ is widely regarded as one of the greatest modernist short stories ever written. It tells of a husband and wifeโ€™s night out at a New Yearโ€™s party, and the โ€˜epiphanyโ€™ or conscious realisation that the husband, Gabriel Conroy, experiences as they arrive home at the end of the night. Joyce was one of the great modernist stylists , and every detail here is ripe with suggestion and connotation.

3. Virginia Woolf, โ€˜ The Mark on the Wall โ€™.

I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.

Woolf3

โ€˜The Mark on the Wallโ€™ puts such an idea into practice: this short tale focuses on the musings of a narrator who is sitting in a room and trying to figure out what the mark on the wall is. This starting-point leads into another thought, and then another โ€“ showing the โ€˜stream of consciousnessโ€™ that many of our minds follow in an average day.

Woolf wrote โ€˜The Mark on the Wallโ€™ in 1917, while the First World War was still raging; itโ€™s the earliest of her โ€˜matureโ€™ and most recognisably modernist short stories. The story was conceived partly as an escape from the wearisome process of writing her second novel,ย  Night and Dayย  (1919), which, like her first novel, began to gesture towards a new modernist technique but hadnโ€™t quite arrived there yet.

We have analysed this story here .

4. Anton Chekhov, โ€˜ Gusev โ€™.

Although perhaps not Chekhovโ€™s very finest story, โ€˜Gusevโ€™ shows how the Russian master of the short story helped to anticipate and, in a sense, create the modernist short story in the late nineteenth century. โ€˜Gusevโ€™ (1890), which focuses on the conversation of a group of soldiers aboard a boat travelling to Russia, was singled out by Virginia Woolf as an example of the new impressionistic, โ€˜spiritualโ€™ and psychological way of writing which she herself was to embody so consummately in her fiction.

5. D. H. Lawrence, โ€˜ Odour of Chrysanthemums โ€™.

In many ways, โ€˜Odour of Chrysanthemumsโ€™ was the story that made D. H. Lawrence โ€™s name. Published in 1911 in a magazine edited by the writer Ford Madox Ford, โ€˜Odour of Chrysanthemumsโ€™ focuses on the mixed feelings experienced by a minerโ€™s wife after her husband goes missing and, following the news that he has been killed in a mining accident, her feelings about his death and her reassessment of their marriage.

The story is a fine illustration of Lawrenceโ€™s concept of โ€˜apparent formlessnessโ€™, where a seemingly unstructured story actually evinces tight control but has the appearance of reflecting the messy realities of ordinary life.

6. Joseph Conrad, โ€˜ The Secret Sharer โ€™.

Conradโ€™s stories and novels can be linked with the adventure story genre, especially the colonial and imperial romances of hugely popular late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers like H. Rider Haggard . But whereas Haggard is a pure storyteller offering adventure and plenty of action , Conrad is more concerned with questioning the very nature of storytelling and examining our perceptions of the world โ€“ including how we perceive reality. โ€˜The Secret Sharerโ€™ (1910) is narrated by a man who saves the life of another man found drowning in the sea, only to discover that the rescued man was guilty of killing fellow crewmates on board his former ship. The moral questions Conradโ€™s story throws out remain explored, but without any definitive answers being proposed. Was the narrator right to help the man? Was it murder or was the killing of his fellow crew-members actually, oddly, a moral act?

7. Henry James, โ€˜ The Figure in the Carpet โ€™.

I pass rapidly over the question of this unmitigated tragedy, of what the loss of my best friend meant for me, and I complete my little history of my patience and my pain by the frank statement of my having, in a postscript to my very first letter to her after the receipt of the hideous news, asked Mrs. Corvick whether her husband mightnโ€™t at least have finished the great article on Vereker. Her answer was as prompt as my question: the article, which had been barely begun, was a mere heartbreaking scrap …

This story has variously been described as a satire on literary criticism and simply โ€˜a jokeโ€™. It is narrated by a rather odd and self-absorbed critic for a fictional newspaper; this narrator is told by a leading novelist, Hugh Vereker, that he โ€“ Vereker โ€“ has concealed a โ€˜secretโ€™ within all of his fiction. Every one of his novels contains this secret which, like a thread in a Turkish carpet, has been so carefully woven into the fabric of the novel that only the most careful reader will find it. The story that ensues is part mystery, part detective story, part exposรฉ of the worst aspects of the literary world.

โ€˜The Figure in the Carpetโ€™ invites numerous interpretations, many of them equally plausible. Is it a satire on the relationship between authors and critics, whereby James is mocking those critics and reviewers who arenโ€™t really interested in understanding an authorโ€™s work, but merely want to advance their own careers? Is it a satire on the vogue for popular fiction in the 1890s, such as the hugely successful detective stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and James โ€“ in withholding the solution to the riddle, and suggesting that there may not evenย  beย  a solution โ€“ is deliberately playing with readersโ€™ expectations concerning the detective story?

We have analysed this classic story here .

famous short stories by famous authors

Image (top): Virginia Woolf by Christiaan Tonnis , share-alike licence.

15 thoughts on “Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read”

What an interesting list. I’ve read Joyce’s ‘the dead’. But, I haven’t read any of the others. I have heard some interesting things about the Garden party. I think that I will have to check out some of these stories. Thanks for sharing

What about Dostoyevsky’s The Crocodile? I suppose Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich doesn’t count as modernist. Pity as it is one of the most moving short stories ever!

  • Pingback: Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read | Tayoulevy's Weblog

Reblogged this on Jerri Perri .

Wonderful list. Thank you.

Excellent, thank you very much.

What an odd choice. These are not the books one automatically associates with those authors.

Such a list is always going to be a little subjective, I grant you. What short stories would you recommend by these authors?

What I really mean was that we usually think of the novels: when we go for Conrad ‘Heart of Darkness’ – Joyce ‘A Portrait …’ – and so on. Chekhov is a bit different, he being a master of short stories with such an easy style. There’s Vanka for example, and The Looking Glass.

Ah, I see. Yes, we’ve compiled a list of the best modernist novels/poems/short stories in a separate post. Heart of Darkness is a must! https://interestingliterature.com/2016/02/02/8-classic-works-of-modernist-literature-everyone-should-read/

Great suggestion list! Thanks, will definitely get to this~ โค

Thank you! Glad you found the suggestions helpful :)

  • Pingback: Although I am in love with creative nonfiction, I have always wanted to give short stories a go. This is an interesting list- | Sugarcoated Chili
  • Pingback: Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read | Phil Slattery's Blog

Great list here. I try to read a short story every week for my blog. These title will certainly go on my list. Recently I’ve been reading the short fiction of Anais Nin. Wow! Really deep stories that stay with you a long time.

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100 Must-Read Contemporary Short Story Collections

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Liberty Hardy

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is โ€œHoly cats!โ€ Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, sheโ€™s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! Sheโ€™s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

View All posts by Liberty Hardy

This list of must-read contemporary short story collections is sponsored by Random House’s ย Buzziest Short Story Collections of 2018

famous short stories by famous authors

From New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeldโ€™s dazzling first collection, You Think It, Iโ€™ll Say It , to National Book Award winner Denis Johnsonโ€™s final collection, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden , thereโ€™s something for every book lover from Random House.

Carmen Maria Machado raves of Anjali Sachdevaโ€™s exhilarating collection, All the Names They Used for God ; โ€œcompleting one [story] is like having lived an entire life, and then being born, breathless, into another.โ€

All are available in Spring 2018 from Random House, wherever books are sold.

Of all of the 100 must-read lists I have done so far, this was probably the easiest, because there are so many amazing contemporary short story collections. Story collections are such a gift: a whole bunch of different stories in one convenient place! What fun! The following list is made up of the first 100 collections that popped into my head. I have read and loved each of them. (And I probably have enough titles to do a sequelโ€”stay tuned!) And by “contemporary” I mean “published this century.” (Which still gave me eighteen amazing years to choose from!)

I’ve included a brief description from the publisher with each title. Tell us in the comments about which of these youโ€™ve read or other contemporary short story collections that you love. There are a LOT of them. Yay, books!

The Thing Around Your Neck ย byย Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, the stories in The Thing Around Your Neck map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them…Now, in her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.”

War by Candlelight: Stories ย byย Danielย Alarcรณn

“Something is happening. Wars, both national and internal, are being waged in jungles, across borders, in the streets of Lima, in the intimacy of New York apartments.ย  War by Candlelight ย is an exquisite collection of stories that carry the reader from Third World urban centers to the fault lines that divide nations and peopleโ€”a devastating portrait of a world in fluxโ€”and Daniel Alarcรณn is an extraordinary new voice in literary fiction, one you will not soon forget.”

The Water Museum: Stories ย byย Luis Alberto Urrea

“From one of America’s preeminent literary voices comes a new story collection that proves once again why the writing of Luis Alberto Urrea has been called ‘wickedly good’ ( Kansas City Star ), ‘cinematic and charged’ ( Cleveland Plain Dealer) , ย  and ‘studded with delights’ ( Chicago Tribune) . Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar-award winning ‘Amapola’ and his now-classic ‘Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses,’ which had the honor of being chosen for NPR’s ‘Selected Shorts’ not once but twice.”

In the Country: Stories ย byย Mia Alvar

“In these nine globe-trotting tales, Mia Alvar gives voice to the women and men of the Philippines and its diaspora. From teachers to housemaids, from mothers to sons, Alvarโ€™s stories explore the universal experiences of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined.ย  In the Country ย speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call homeโ€”and marks the arrival of a formidable new voice in literature.”

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories ย byย Lesley Nneka Arimah

“A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home…Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human,ย  What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky ย heralds the arrival of a prodigious talent with a remarkable career ahead of her.”

North American Lake Monsters: Stories byย Nathan Ballingrud

“Nathan Ballingrud’s Shirley Jackson Awardโ€“winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud’s intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.”

Young Skins: Stories ย byย Colin Barrett

“Enter the small, rural town of Glanbeigh, a place whose fate took a downturn with the Celtic Tiger, a desolate spot where buffoonery and tension simmer and erupt, and booze-sodden boredom fills the corners of every pub and nightclub. Here, and in the towns beyond, the young live hard and wear the scars…In each story, a local voice delineates the grittiness of post boom Irish society. These are unforgettable characters rendered through silence, humor, and violence. Told in Barrettโ€™s vibrant, distinctive prose,ย  Young Skins ย is an accomplished and irreverent debut from a singular new voice in contemporary fiction.”

There Are Little Kingdoms: Stories ย byย Kevin Barry

“These stories, filled with a grand sense of life’s absurdity, form a remarkably sure-footed collection that reads like a modern-dayย  Dubliners . The winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and a 2007 book of the year inย  The Irish Times , theย  Sunday Tribune , andย  Metro ,ย  There Are Little Kingdoms ย marks the stunning entrance of a writer who burst onto the literary scene fully formed.”

We Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories ย byย Clare Beams

“The literary, historic, and fantastic collide in these wise and exquisitely unsettling stories. From bewildering assemblies in school auditoriums to the murky waters of a Depression-era health resort, Beamsโ€™s landscapes are tinged with otherworldliness, and her charactersโ€™ desires stretch the limits of reality…As they capture the strangeness of being human, the stories inย  We Show What We Have Learned ย reveal Clare Beamsโ€™s rare and capacious imaginationโ€”and yet they are grounded in emotional complexity, illuminating the ways we attempt to transform ourselves, our surroundings, and each other.”

Welcome Thieves: Stories ย byย Sean Beaudoin

“Black humor mixed with pathos is the hallmark of the twelve stories in this adult debut collection from a master writer of comic and inventive YA novels…Beaudoinโ€™s stories are edgy and profane, bittersweet and angry, bemused and sardonic. Yet theyโ€™re always tinged with heart. Beaudoinโ€™s novels have been praised for their playfulness and complexity, for the originality and beauty of their language.”

The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead: Stories ย byย Chanelle Benz

“The characters inย  The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead , Benz’s wildly imaginative debut, are as varied as any in recent literature, but they share a thirst for adventure which sends them rushing full-tilt toward the moral crossroads, becoming victims and perpetrators along the way. Riveting, visceral, and heartbreaking, Benzโ€™s stories of identity, abandonment, and fierce love come together in a daring, arresting vision.”

Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories ย byย Megan Mayhew Bergman

“Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergmanโ€™s powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collides with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place canโ€™t be denied.”

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories ย byย Lucia Berlin

“A Manual for Cleaning Women ย compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how theyโ€™d ever overlooked her in the first place.”

Things that Fall from the Sky ย byย Kevin Brockmeier

“Weaving together loss and anxiety with fantastic elements and literary sleight-of-hand, Kevin Brockmeierโ€™s richly imaginedย  Things That Fall from the Sky ย views the nagging realities of the world through a hopeful lens…Achingly beautiful and deceptively simple,ย  Things That Fall from the Skyย  defies gravity as one of the most original story collections seen in recent years.”

Mothers, Tell Your Daughters: Stories ย byย Bonnie Jo Campbell

“Named by theย  Guardian ย as one of our top ten writers of rural noir, Bonnie Jo Campbell is a keen observer of life and trouble in rural America, and her working-class protagonists can be at once vulnerable, wise, cruel, and funny. The strong but flawed women ofย  Mothers, Tell Your Daughters ย must negotiate a sexually charged atmosphere as they love, honor, and betray one another against the backdrop of all the men in their world. Such richly fraught mother-daughter relationships can be lifelines, anchors, or they can sink a woman like a stone.”

Honeymoon and Other Stories ย byย Kevin Canty

“Honeymoonย  is a book about love, about lovers and would-be lovers exploring unlikely alliances, all of them toeing a certain eventful edge, a decision between rational restraint and something altogether different…Revealing the hidden longings and quirky needs of both men and women with a tough sensitivity and deep, sometimes biting humor,ย  Honeymoonย  presents a masterful writer purely at home in his form, yet continuing to push himself and his stories to their limits with enthusiasm and daring.”

The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington ย byย Leonora Carrington

“Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917โ€“2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life.”

Among the Missing ย byย Dan Chaon

“In this haunting, bracing new collection, Dan Chaon shares stories of men, women, and children who live far outside the American Dream, while wondering which decision, which path, or which accident brought them to this place. Chaon mines the psychological landscape of his characters to dazzling effect. Each story radiates with sharp humor, mystery, wonder, and startling compassion.ย  Among the Missing ย lingers in the mind through its subtle grace and power of language.”

Stories of Your Life and Others ย byย Ted Chiang

“What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven’s other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang.”

The Ladies of Grace Adieu: and Other Stories ย byย Susanna Clarke

“Faerie is never as far away as you think. Sometimes you find you have crossed an invisible line and must cope, as best you can, with petulant princesses, vengeful owls, ladies who pass their time embroidering terrible fates or with endless paths in deep, dark woods and houses that never appear the same way twice. The heroines and heroes bedeviled by such problems in these fairy tales include a conceited Regency clergyman, an eighteenth-century Jewish doctor and Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as two characters from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell : Strange himself and the Raven King.”

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories byย Kathleen Collins

“Now available in Eccoโ€™s Art of the Story series: a never-before-published collection of stories from a brilliant yet little known African American artist and filmmakerโ€”a contemporary of revered writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Laurie Colwin, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paleyโ€”whose prescient work has recently resurfaced to wide acclaim. Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collinsโ€™s stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issuesโ€”race, gender, family, and sexualityโ€”that shape the ordinary moments in our lives.”

Mary and O’Neil: A Novel in Stories ย byย Justin Cronin

“Justin Croninโ€™s poignant debut traces the lives of Mary Olson and Oโ€™Neil Burke, two vulnerable young teachers who rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope. From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, this novel in stories illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and Oโ€™Neil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt them: the sudden, mysterious death of Oโ€™Neilโ€™s parents, Maryโ€™s long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, Oโ€™Neilโ€™s sisterโ€™s battle with illness and a troubled marriage. Alive with magical nuance and unexpected encounters, Mary and Oโ€™Neil celebrates the uncommon in common lives, and the redemptive power of love.”

We’ve Already Gone This Far: Stories ย byย Patrick Dacey

“In this stunning debut, Patrick Dacey draws us into the secret lives of recognizable strangers. Here, in small-town Massachusetts, after more than a decade of boom and bust, everyone is struggling to find their own version of the American dream: a lonely woman attacks a memorial to a neighborโ€™s veteran son, a dissatisfied housewife goes overboard with cosmetic surgery on national television, a young father walks away from one of the few jobs left in town, a soldier writes home to a mother who is becoming increasingly unhinged.”

The Redemption of Galen Pike ย byย Carys Davies

“From remote Australian settlements to the snows of Siberia, from Colorado to Cumbria, restless teenagers, middle-aged civil servants, and Quaker spinsters traverse expanses of solitude to reveal the secrets of the human heart. Written with raw and rigorous prose, charged throughout by a prickly wit, the stories inย  The Redemption of Galen Pike ย remind us how little we know of the lives of others.”

The Shell Collector: Stories ย byย Anthony Doerr

“The exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerrโ€™s debut collection take readers from the African Coast to the pine forests of Montana to the damp moors of Lapland, charting a vast physical and emotional landscape. Doerr explores the human condition in all its varietiesโ€”metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending heartsโ€”conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of the characters in these stories contend with hardships; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the ravishing universe outside themselves.”

Ghost Summer: Stories ย byย Tananarive Due

“Whether weaving family life and history into dark fiction or writing speculative Afrofuturism, American Book Award winner and Essence bestselling author Tananarive Due’s work is both riveting and enlightening. In her debut collection of short fiction, Due takes us to Gracetown, a small Florida town that has both literal and figurative ghost; into future scenarios that seem all too real; and provides empathetic portraits of those whose lives are touched by Otherness.”

The Wilds by Julia Elliott

“In her genre-bending stories, Elliott blends Southern gothic strangeness with dystopian absurdities, sci-fi speculations with fairy-tale transformations. Teetering between the ridiculous and the sublime, Elliottโ€™s language-driven fiction uses outlandish tropes to capture poignant moments in her humble charactersโ€™ lives. Without abandoning the tenets of classic storytelling, Elliott revels in lush lyricism, dark humor, and experimental play.”

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories ย byย Nathan Englander

“These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life, with a command of language and the imagination that place Englander at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction.”

A Collapse of Horses ย byย Brian Evenson

“A stuffed bearโ€™s heart beats with the rhythm of a dead baby, Reno keeps receding to the east no matter how far you drive, and in a mine on another planet, the dust wonโ€™t stop seeping in. In these stories, Evenson unsettles us with the everyday and the extraordinaryโ€”the terror of living with the knowledge of all we cannot know.”

Half an Inch of Water: Stories ย byย Percival Everett

“For the plainspoken men and women of these storiesโ€”fathers and daughters, sheriffs and veterinariansโ€”small events trigger sudden shifts in which the ordinary becomes unfamiliar… Half an Inch of Waterย  tears through the fabric of the everyday to examine what lies beneath the surface of these lives. In the hands of master storyteller Everett, the act of questioning leads to vistas more strange and unsettling than could ever have been expected.”

A Natural History of Hell: Stories ย byย Jeffrey Ford

“Emily Dickinson takes a carriage ride with Death. A couple are invited over to a neighbor’s daughter’s exorcism. A country witch with a sea-captain’s head in a glass globe intercedes on behalf of abused and abandoned children. In July of 1915, in Hardin County, Ohio, a boy sees ghosts. Explore contemporary natural history in a baker’s dozen of exhilarating visions.”

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories ย byย Ben Fountain

“The well-meaning protagonists ofย  Brief Encounters with Che Guevara ย are caughtโ€”to both disastrous and hilarious effectโ€”in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. Ben Fountainโ€™s prize-winning debut speaks to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.”

Ayiti by Roxane Gay*

“Fromย  New York Times โ€“bestselling powerhouse Roxane Gay,ย  Ayiti ย is a powerful collection exploring the Haitian diaspora experience. Originally published by a small press, this Grove Press paperback will make Gayโ€™s debut widely available for the first time, including several new stories.”

*Originally published in 2011, being reissued by Grove Press on June 12

Dead Girls and Other Stories ย byย Emily Geminder

“With lyric artistry and emotional force, Emily Geminder’s debut collection charts a vivid constellation of characters fleeing their own stories. A teenage runaway and her mute brother seek salvation in houses, buses, the backseats of cars. Preteen girls dial up the ghosts of fat girls. A crew of bomber pilots addresses the ash of villagers below. And from India to New York to Phnom Penh, dead girls both real and fantastic appear again and again: as obsession, as threat, as national myth and collective nightmare.”

Gutshot: Stories ย byย Amelia Gray

“A woman creeps through the ductwork of a quiet home. A medical procedure reveals an object of worship. A carnivorous reptile divides and cauterizes a town. Amelia Gray’s curio cabinet expands inย  Gutshot , where isolation and coupling are pushed to their dark and outrageous edges. A master of the macabre, Gray’s work is not for the faint of heart or gut: lick at your own risk.”

Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories ย byย Lauren Groff

“Throughout the collection, Groff displays particular and vivid preoccupations. Crime is a motifโ€”sex crimes, a possible murder, crimes of the heart. Love troubles recur; they’re in every storyโ€”love in alcoholism, in adultery, in a flood, even in the great flu epidemic of 1918. Some of the love has depths, which are understood too late; some of the love is shallow, and also understood too late. And mastery is a themeโ€”Groff’s women swim and baton twirl, become poets, or try and try again to achieve the inner strength to exercise personal freedom.”

You Should Pity Us Instead ย byย Amy Gustine

“You Should Pity Us Insteadย  explores some of our toughest dilemmas: the cost of Middle East strife at its most intimate level, the likelihood of God considered in day-to-day terms, the moral stakes of family obligations, and the inescapable fact of mortality. Amy Gustine exhibits an extraordinary generosity toward her characters, instilling them with a thriving, vivid presence.”

Madame Zero: 9 Stories ย byย Sarah Hall

“From one of the most accomplished British writers working today, the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author ofย  The Wolf Border , comes a unique and arresting collection of short fiction that is both disturbing and dazzling…In this collection of nine works of short fiction, she uses her piercing insight to plumb the depth of the female experience and the human soul.”

You Are Not a Stranger Here: Stories ย byย Adam Haslett

“In these unforgettable stories, the acclaimed author ofย  Imagine Me Gone ย explores lives that appear shuttered by loss and discovers entire worlds hidden inside them. The impact is at once harrowing and thrilling…Told with Chekhovian restraint and compassion, and conveying both the sorrow of life and the courage with which people rise to meet it,ย  You Are Not a Stranger Here ย is a triumph of storytelling.”

Single, Carefree, Mellow byย Katherine Heiny

“For the commitment-averse women in the eleven sublime stories ofย  Single, Carefree, Mellow,ย  falling in love is never easy and always inconvenientโ€ฆThe women grapple with love amidst everything from unwelcome houseguests to disastrous birthday parties as Katherine Heiny spins a debut that is superbly accomplished, endlessly entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny.”

The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria ย byย Carlos Hernรกndez

“Assimilation is founded on surrender and being broken; this collection of short stories features people who have assimilated, but are actively trying to reclaim their lives…Poignant by way of funny, and philosophical by way of grotesque, Hernandezโ€™s stories are prayers for self-sovereignty.”

20th Century Ghosts ย byย Joe Hill

“Imogene is young, beautifulโ€ฆand dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945โ€ฆFrancis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him singโ€ฆJohn is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the deadโ€ฆNolan knows but can never tell whatย  really ย happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worldsโ€ฆ The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even pastโ€ฆ”

Barbara the Slut and Other People ย byย Lauren Holmes

“Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves.”

Falling in Love with Hominids ย byย Nalo Hopkinson

“In this long-awaited collection, Hopkinson continues to expand the boundaries of culture and imagination. Whether she is retellingย  The Tempest ย as a new Caribbean myth, filling a shopping mall with unfulfilled ghosts, or herding chickens that occasionally breathe fire, Hopkinson continues to create bold fiction that transcends boundaries and borders.”

Deceit and Other Possibilities ย byย Vanessa Hua

“In this powerful debut collection, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a new America. Tied to their ancestral and adopted homelands in ways unimaginable in generations past, these memorable characters straddle both worlds but belong to none.ย These stories shine a light on immigrant families navigating a new America, straddling cultures and continents, veering between dream and disappointment.”

Daddy’s by Lindsay Hunter

“Lindsay Hunter tells the stories no one else will in ways no one else can. In this down and dirty debut she draws vivid portraits of bad people in worse places…A rising star of the new fast fiction, Hunter bares all before you can blink in her bold, beautiful stories. In this collection of slim southern gothics, she offers an exploration not of the human heart but of the spine; mixing sex, violence and love into a harrowing, head-spinning read.”

Knockout: Stories ย byย John Jodzio

“The work of John Jodzio has already made waves across the literary community. Some readers noticed his nimble blending of humor with painful truths reminded them of George Saunders. His creativity and fresh voice reminded others of Wells Tower’sย  Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned . But with his new collection, Jodzio creates a class of his own.”

Fortune Smiles: Stories ย byย Adam Johnson

“Throughout these six stories, Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal, giving voice to the perspectives we donโ€™t often hear.”

All Aunt Hagar’s ChildreN: stories ย byย Edward P. Jones

“Returning to the city that inspired his first prizewinning book,ย  Lost in the City , Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city’s power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens.ย  All Aunt Hagar’s Children ย turns an unflinching eye to the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them further north, people who in Jones’s masterful hands, emerge as fully human and morally complex, whether they are country folk used to getting up with the chickens or people with centuries of education behind them.”

After the People Lights Have Gone Off ย byย Stephen Graham Jones

“The fifteen stories inย  After the People Lights Have Gone Offย  by Stephen Graham Jones explore the horrors and fears of the supernatural and the everyday.ย Included are two original stories, several rarities and out of print narratives, as well as a few ‘best of the year’ inclusions.”

Unaccustomed Earth byย Jhumpa Lahiri

“These eight stories by beloved and bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. Here they enter the worlds of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Rich with the signature gifts that have established Jhumpa Lahiri as one of our most essential writers,ย  Unaccustomed Earthย  exquisitely renders the most intricate workings of the heart and mind.”

Virgin and Other Stories ย byย April Ayers Lawson

“Nodding to the Southern Gothic but channeling an energy all its own,ย  Virgin and Other Stories ย is a mesmerizing debut from an uncannily gifted young writer. With self-assurance and sensuality, April Ayers Lawson unravels the intertwining imperatives of intimacyโ€”sex and love, violation and trust, spirituality and desireโ€”eyeing, unblinkingly, what happens when we succumb to temptation.”

Back Talk: Stories ย byย Danielle Lazarin

“Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. With a fresh voice and bold honesty,ย  Back Talkย  examines how narrowly our culture allows women to express their desires.”

The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories ย byย Ursula K. Le Guin

“The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, five Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards, the renowned writer Ursula K. Le Guin has, in each story and novel, created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, inย  The Birthday of the World, ย this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.”

Bobcat and Other Stories ย byย Rebecca Lee

“Rebecca Lee, one of our most gifted and original short story writers, guides readers into a range of landscapes, both foreign and domestic, crafting stories as rich as novels…Showing people at their most vulnerable, Lee creates characters so wonderfully flawed, so driven by their desire, so compelled to make sense of their human condition, that it’s impossible not to feel for them when their fragile belief in romantic love, domestic bliss, or academic seclusion fails to provide them with the sort of force field they’d expected.”

We Come to Our Senses: Stories ย byย Odie Lindsey

“For readers ofย  Billy Lynnโ€™s Long Halftime Walk ย andย  Redeployment , a searing debut exploring the lives of veterans returning to their homes in the South. Lacerating and lyrical,ย  We Come to Our Senses ย centers on men and women affected by combat directly and tangentially, and the peculiar legacies of war.”

Get in Trouble: Stories ย byย Kelly Link

“Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas,ย  The Wizard of Oz, ย superheroes, the Pyramidsโ€ฆThese are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailtyโ€”and the hidden strengthsโ€”of human beings. Inย  Get in Trouble,ย  this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.”

The Complete Stories ย byย Clarice Lispector,โ€Žย Benjamin Moserย (Editor),โ€Žย Katrina Dodson (Translator)

“Now, for the first time in English, are all the stories that made her a Brazilian legend: from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and artistic powers to humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old people who donโ€™t know what to do with themselves. Clariceโ€™s stories take us through their livesโ€”and ours. From one of the greatest modern writers, these stories, gathered from the nine collections published during her lifetime, follow an unbroken time line of success as a writer, from her adolescence to her death bed.”

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories byย Ken Liu

“With his debut novel,ย  The Grace of Kings , taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction inย  The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories …Insightful and stunning stories that plumb the struggle against history and betrayal of relationships in pivotal moments, this collection showcases one of our greatest and original voices.”

Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail ย byย Kelly Luce

“Set in Japan, Luce’s playful, tender storiesโ€”reminiscent of Haruki Murakami and Aimee Benderโ€”tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love. The award-winning narratives in this mesmerizing debut trace the lives of ex-pats, artists, and outsiders as they seek to find their place in the world.”

Half Wild: Stories ย byย Robin MacArthur

“Spanning nearly forty years, the stories in Robin MacArthurโ€™s formidable debut give voice to the dreams, hungers, and fears of a diverse cast of Vermontersโ€”adolescent girls, aging hippies, hardscrabble farmers, disconnected women, and solitary men. Straddling the border between civilization and the wild, they all struggle to make sense of their loneliness and longings in the stark and often isolating enclaves they call homeโ€”golden fields and white-veiled woods, dilapidated farmhouses and makeshift trailers, icy rivers and still lakes rouse the imagination, tether the heart, and inhabit the soul.”

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories ย byย Carmen Maria Machado

“In ย Her Body and Other Parties , Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of womenโ€™s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.”

Music for Wartime: Stories ย byย Rebecca Makkai

“Rebecca Makkaiโ€™s first two novels,ย  The Borrower ย andย  The Hundred-Year House , have established her as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in fiction. Now, the award-winning writer, whose stories have appeared in four consecutive editions ofย  The Best American Short Stories, ย returns with a highly anticipated collection bearing her signature mix of intelligence, wit, and heart.”

Thunderstruck & Other Stories ย byย Elizabeth McCracken

“In Elizabeth McCrackenโ€™s universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joyโ€”an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accentโ€”that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive.ย  Thunderstruck & Other Stories ย shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers.”

Heartbreaker: Stories ย byย Maryse Meijer

“In her debut story collectionย  Heartbreaker , Maryse Meijer peels back the crust of normalcy and convention, unmasking the fury and violence we are willing to inflict in the name of love and loneliness. Her characters are a strange ensembleโ€”a feral child, a girl raised from the dead, a possible pedophileโ€”who share in vulnerability and heartache, but maintain an unremitting will to survive. Meijer deals in desire and sex, femininity and masculinity, family and girlhood, crafting a landscape of appetites threatening to self-destruct. In beautifully restrained and exacting prose, she sets the marginalized free to roam her pages and burn our assumptions to the ground.”

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It ย byย Maile Meloy

“Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefieldsโ€”and fields of victoryโ€”that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship.”

Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories ย byย China Miรฉville

“The fiction of multiple awardโ€“winning author China Miรฉville is powered by intelligence and imagination. Like George Saunders, Karen Russell, and David Mitchell, he pulls from a variety of genres with equal facility, employing the fantastic not to escape from reality but instead to interrogate it in provocative, unexpected ways.”

I Was a Revolutionary: Stories ย byย Andrew Malan Milward

“Grounded in place, spanning the Civil War to the present day, the stories inย  I Was a Revolutionary ย capture the roil of history through the eyes of an unforgettable cast of characters: the visionaries and dreamers, radical farmers and socialist journalists, quack doctors and protestors who haunt the past and present landscape of the state of Kansas.”

Runaway by Alice Munro

“In Munroโ€™s hands, the people she writes aboutโ€”women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and childrenโ€”become as vivid as our own neighbors. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own.”

After the Quake: Stories ย byย Haruki Murakami,โ€Žย Jay Rubinย ย (Translator)

“The six stories in Haruki Murakamiโ€™s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakamiโ€™s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.”

You Are My Heart and Other Stories ย byย Jay Neugeboren

“From the secluded villages in the south of France, to the cattle crawl in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in South Africa, to the hard-knock adolescent streets of Brooklyn, Neugeboren examines the great mysteries and complexities that unsettle and comprise human relationships. In works that are as memorable, engrossing, and exciting as they are gorgeously crafted, Neugeboren delivers on his reputation as one of our pre-eminent American writers.”

The Refugees ย byย Viet Thanh Nguyen

“With the same incisiveness as inย  The Sympathizer , inย  The Refugees ย Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to the hopes and expectations of people making life-changing decisions to leave one country for another, and the rifts in identity, loyalties, romantic relationships, and family that accompany relocation. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of migration.”

Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls: Stories byย Alissa Nutting*

“Throughout these breathtakingly creative seventeen stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs…Wickedly funny yet ringing with deep truths about gender, authority and the ways we inhabit and restrict the female body,ย  Unclean Jobs for Women and Girlsย  is a brilliant commentary on the kaleidoscope of human behavior and a remarkably nuanced satire for our times.”

*Originally published in 2011, being reissued by Ecco on July 3

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales ย byย Yoko Ogawa,โ€Žย Stephen Snyderย (Translator)

“Sinister forces collideโ€”and unite a host of desperate charactersโ€”in this eerie cycle of interwoven tales from Yoko Ogawa, the critically acclaimed author ofย  The Housekeeper and the Professor …Yoko Ogawa’sย Revengeย is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page.”

Salsa Nocturna ย byย Daniel Josรฉ Older

“A 300 year-old story collector enlists the help of the computer hacker next door to save her dying sister. A half-resurrected cleanup man for Death’s sprawling bureaucracy faces a phantom pachyderm, doll-collecting sorceresses and his own ghoulish bosses. Gordo, the old Cubano that watches over the graveyards and sleeping children of Brooklyn, stirs and lights another Malaguena. Down the midnight streets of New York, a whole invisible universe churns to life in Daniel Jose Older’s debut collection of ghost noir.”

The Bigness of the World: Stories ย byย Lori Ostlund

“In Lori Ostlundโ€™s award-winning debut collection, people seeking escape from situations at home venture out into a world that they find is just as complicated and troubled as the one they left behind. In prose highlighted by both satire and poignant observation,ย  The Bigness of the Worldย  contains characters that represent a different sort of everymanโ€”men and women who poke fun at ideological rigidity while holding fast to good grammar and manners, people seeking connections in a world that seems increasingly foreign.”

When the Emperor Was Divine ย byย Julie Otsuka

“Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination ‘both physical and emotional’ of a generation of Japanese Americans…Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated,ย  When the Emperor Was Divine ย is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times.”

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ย byย ZZ Packer

“With penetrating insight that belies her youthโ€”she was only nineteen years old whenย  Seventeen ย magazine printed her first published storyโ€”ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision.ย  Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ย is a striking performanceโ€”fresh, versatile, and captivating. It introduces us to an arresting and unforgettable new voice.”

Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories ย byย Edith Pearlman

“In this sumptuous offering, one of our premier storytellers provides a feast for fiction aficionados. Spanning four decades and three prize-winning collections, these twenty-one vintage selected stories and thirteen scintillating new ones take us around the world, from Jerusalem to Central America, from tsarist Russia to London during the Blitz, from central Europe to Manhattan, and from the Maine coast to Godolphin, Massachusetts, a fictional suburb of Boston. These charged locales, and the lives of the endlessly varied characters within them, are evoked with a tenderness and incisiveness found in only our most observant seers.”

I Want to Show You More ย byย Jamie Quatro

“Sharp-edged and fearless, mixing white-hot yearning with daring humor, Quatroโ€™s stories upend and shake out our views on infidelity, faith, and family. Set around Lookout Mountain on the border of Georgia and Tennessee, Quatroโ€™s hypnotically revealing stories range from the traditional to the fabulist as they expose lives torn between spirituality and sexuality in the New American South. These fifteen linked tales confront readers with fractured marriages, mercurial temptations, and dark theological complexities, and establish a sultry and enticingly cool new voice in American fiction.”

You Have Never Been Here: New and Selected Stories ย byย Mary Rickert

“Open this book to any page and find yourself enspelled by these lush, alchemical stories. Faced with the uncanny and the impossible, Rickertโ€™s protagonists are as painfully, shockingly, complexly human as the readers who will encounter them. Mothers, daughters, witches, artists, strangers, winged babies, and others grapple with deception, loss, and moments of extraordinary joy.”

The Republic of East LA: Stories ย byย Luis J. Rodriguez

“From the award-winning author ofย  Always Running ย comes a brilliant collection of short stories about life in East Los Angeles.ย In these stories, Luis J. Rodriguez gives eloquent voice to the neighborhood where he spent many years as a resident, a father, an organizer, and, finally, a writer: a neighborhood that offers more to the world than its appearance allows.”

The Girl of the Lake: Stories ย byย Bill Roorbach

“These moving and funny stories are as rich in scope, emotional, and memorable as Bill Roorbachโ€™s novels. He has been called โ€œa kinder, gentler John Irving…a humane and entertaining storyteller with a smooth, graceful styleโ€ (theย  Washington Post ), andย his work has been described as โ€œhilarious and heartbreaking, wild and wiseโ€ ( Parade ย magazine), all of which is evident in spades (and also hearts, clubs, and diamonds)ย in every story in this arresting new collection.”

Telling the Map: Stories ย byย Christopher Rowe

“There are ten stories here including one readers have waited ten long years for: in new novellaย  The Border State ย Rowe revisits the world of his much-lauded storyย  The Voluntary State . Competitive cyclists twins Michael and Maggie have trained all their lives to race internationally. One thing holds them back: their mother who years before crossed the borderโ€ฆinto Tennessee.”

All the Names They Used for God: Stories ย byย Anjali Sachdeva

“Like many of us, the characters in this collection are in pursuit of the sublime, and find themselves looking not just to divinity but to science, nature, psychology, and industry, forgetting that their new, logical deities are no more trustworthy than the tempestuous gods of the past. Along the way, they walk the knife-edge between wonder and terror, salvation and destruction.ย  All the Names They Used for God ย is an entrancing work of speculative fiction that heralds Anjali Sachdeva as an invigorating, incomparable new voice.”

Tenth of December: Stories ย byย George Saunders

“Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories inย  Tenth of December โ€”through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spiritโ€”not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhovโ€™s dictum that art should ‘prepare us for tenderness.’”

Blueprints for Building Better Girls ย byย Elissa Schappell

“Its interconnected stories explore the commonly shared but rarely spoken of experiences that build girls into women and women into wives and mothers. In revealing all their vulnerabilities and twisting our preconceived notions of who they are, Elissa Schappell alters how we think about the nature of female identity and how it evolves.”

Ambiguity Machines: and Other Stories ย byย Vandana Singh

“Singh’s stories have been performed on BBC radio, been finalists for the British SF Association award, selected for the Tiptree award honor list, and oft reprinted in Best of the Year anthologies. Her dives deep into the vast strangeness of the universe without and within and with her unblinking clear vision she explores the ways we move through space and time: together, yet always apart.”

The Virginity of Famous Men: Stories ย byย Christine Sneed

“Long intrigued by love and loneliness, Sneed leads readers through emotional landscapes both familiar and uncharted. These probing stories are explorations of the compassionate and passionate impulses that are inherent inโ€”and often the source ofโ€”both abiding joy and serious distress in every human life.”

The Unfinished World: And Other Stories ย byย Amber Sparks

“Sparksโ€™s storiesโ€”populated with sculptors, librarians, astronauts, and warriorsโ€”form a veritable cabinet of curiosities. Mythical, bizarre, and deeply moving,ย  The Unfinished World and Other Stories ย heralds the arrival of a major writer and illuminates the search for a brief encounter with the extraordinary.”

Monstress: Stories ย byย Lysley Tenorio

“A luminous collection of heartbreaking, vivid, startling, and gloriously unique stories set amongst the Filipino-American communities of California and the Philippines,ย  Monstress ย heralds the arrival of a breathtaking new talent on the literary scene: Lysley Tenorio. Already the worthy recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writerโ€™s Award, and a Stegner Fellowship, Tenorio brilliantly explores the need to find connections, the melancholy of isolation, and the sometimes suffocating ties of family in tales that range from a California army base to a steamy moviehouse in Manilla, to the dangerous false glitter of Hollywood.”

Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories ย byย Kanishk Tharoor

“With exuberant originality and startling vision, Tharoor cuts against the grain of literary convention, drawing equally from ancient history and current events. His world-spanning stories speak to contemporary challenges of environmental collapse and cultural appropriation, but also to the workings of legend and their timeless human truths. Whether refashioning the romances of Alexander the Great or confronting the plight of todayโ€™s refugees, Tharoor writes with distinctive insight and remarkable assurance.ย  Swimmer Among the Stars ย announces the arrival of a vital, enchanting talent.”

Night at the Fiestas: Stories ย byย Kirstin Valdez Quade

“With intensity and emotional precision, Kirstin Valdez Quade’s unforgettable stories plunge us into the fierce, troubled hearts of characters defined by the desire to escape the past or else to plumb its depths…Always hopeful, these stories chart the passions and obligations of family life, exploring themes of race, class, and coming-of-age, as Quade’s characters protect, betray, wound, undermine, bolster, define, and, ultimately, save each other.”

What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us: Stories ย byย Laura van den Berg

“Containing work reprinted in Best Non-Required Reading 2008, Best New American Voices 2010, and The Pushcart Prizes 2010, the stories in Laura van den Berg’s rich and inventive debut illuminate the intersection of the mythic and the mundane…Rendered with precision and longing, the women who narrate these starkly beautiful stories are consumed with searchingโ€”for absolution, for solace, for the flash of extraordinary in the ordinary that will forever alter their lives.”

Battleborn: Stories ย byย Claire Vaye Watkins

“In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it. Her characters orbit around the region’s vast spaces, winning redemption despiteโ€”and often because ofโ€”the hardship and violence they endure.”

Children of the New World: Stories ย byย Alexander Weinstein

“ Children of the New Worldย  grapples with our unease in this modern world and how our ever-growing dependence on new technologies has changed the shape of our society. Alexander Weinstein is a visionary new voice in speculative fiction for all of us who are fascinated by and terrified of what we might find on the horizon.”

Honored Guest: Stories ย byย Joy Williams

“With her singular brand of gorgeous dark humor, Joy Williams explores the various waysโ€”comic, tragic, and unnervingโ€”we seek to accommodate diminishment and loss. A masseuse breaks her rich client’s wrist bone, a friend visits at the hospital long after she is welcome, and a woman surrenders her husband to a creepily adoring student. From one of our most acclaimed writers,ย  Honored Guestย  is a rich examination of our capacity for transformation and salvation.”

Diving Belles: And Other Stories ย byย Lucy Wood

“In these stories, the line between the real and the imagined is blurred as Lucy Wood takes us to Cornwallโ€™s ancient coast, building on its rich storytelling history and recasting its myths in thoroughly contemporary ways. Calling forth the fantastic and fantastical, she mines these legends for that bit of magic remaining in all our livesโ€”if only we can let ourselves see it.”

The Mountain: Stories ย byย Paul Yoon

“Hailed byย  New Yorkย  magazine as a ‘quotidian-surreal craft-master’ and a ‘radiant star in the current literary firmament’ byย  The Dallas Morning News , Yoon realizes his worlds with quiet, insightful, and gorgeous prose. Though each story is distinct from the others, his restrained voice and perceptive observations about violenceโ€”to the body, the landscape, and ultimately, the human soulโ€”weaves throughout this collection as a whole, makingย  The Mountain ย a beautiful, memorable read.”

Sour Heart: Stories ย byย Jenny Zhang

“Narrated by the daughters of Chinese immigrants who fled imperiled lives as artists back home only to struggle to stay afloatโ€”dumpster diving for food and scamming Atlantic City casino buses to make a buckโ€”these seven stories showcase Zhangโ€™s compassion, moral courage, and a perverse sense of humor reminiscent ofย  Portnoyโ€™s Complaint .ย A darkly funny and intimate rendering of girlhood,ย  Sour Heartย  examines what it means to belong to a family, to find your home, leave it, reject it, and return again.”

What are your favorite contemporary short story collections?ย 

famous short stories by famous authors

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List of 15 Best Short Story Authors and Their Masterpieces You Need to Know

List of 15 Best Short Story Authors and Their Masterpieces You Need to Know

authors of books February 2, 2022 Author 0

Do you like reading books but do not have enough time to read a novel? Then, you need to consider reading short stories as an alternative. It is a writing with a shorter page length, yet contains concise and descriptive language to portray the scene and develop the characters. Discover 15 best short story authors along with their famous works for your upcoming reading schedule.

Please note that many of the best-selling novelists we know also write short story, usually wrapped in the best short story collection for their readers.

Get To Know the Best Short Story Authors and Their Masterpiece

1. guy de maupassant.

Guy de Maupassant was born on August 05, 1850 in Chรขteau de Miromesnil, France. During his career, this French short story writer has written about 300 short stories. Among the renowned works are The Necklace, Boule de Suif, Mother Savage and Bel-Amis. His writing has a strong influence on modern literature that makes him considered as the father of modern short story.

guy de maupassant best short story authors and their masterpieces you need to know

2. Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is among the American Famous short story writers who was born in Boston, USA on 19 January 1809. He was the first writer who invented the genre of detective fiction story and has a main influence on the science-fiction genre. Moreover, he is regarded as the modern short-storyโ€™s architect.

His best-known masterpieces among others are The Tell-Tale Heart, the Raven, The Pit and The Pendulum, and the Fall of the House of Usher.

3. Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov is a Russian short story writer who is considered as the greatest short fiction writer. He was born in Taganrog, Russia on 29 January 1860. His works offer great influence on the modern short story progress. Aside from writing short story, Chekov was also a playwright who brought influence to modernism in theatre with Hendrik Ibsen and August Strindberg.

The masterpieces of this modern short story founder for example are The Lady with the Dog, The Darling, Vanka and The Bet.

4. Alice Munro

Alice Munro is a Canadian writer who was born on 10 July 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. In 2013 she received the Nobel Prize in Literature as master of the contemporary short story (link). Her prominent works among others are Too Much Happiness and Runaway. Being one of the Best contemporary short story writers, Munroโ€™s stories are mostly about women and their friendship, relationships and motherhood, written in a candid prose.

5. Margaret Atwood

Same with Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood who was born on 18 November 1939 is also a Canadian writer, environmental activist and novelist. Many of Atwoodโ€™s works have been adapted into television series and films. Happy Endings and The Handmaidโ€™s Tale are among her renowned works.

margaret atwood best short story authors and their masterpieces you need to know

6. Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver is an American prolific short story writer whose works do not need any exposition on conventional techniques. He was born in Oregon, USA on 25 May 1938 and died in 1988. Cathedral and Why Donโ€™t You Dance? are among the best works he has already written. Both stories were published in 1981.

7. Ernest Hemingway

Everybody knows about this American writer who was born on 21 July 1899. Ernest Hemingwayโ€™s works had a great influence on 20th century fiction. He earned a Nobel Prize on Literature in 1954 (link) for his famous book i.e. The Old Man and the Sea. Aside from that, his classic work among others are: A Farewell to Arms, Big Two-Hearted River, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hills Like White Elephants and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

8. Hans Christian Andersen

If you have ever read fairy tales like Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid or The Emperorโ€™s New Clothes, then you know about this legendary Danish author. Hans Christian Andersen who was born on 2 April 1805 is not only appreciated by young readers but the old ones alike.

Many of his works have been made into films, play and even ballets. Surely, we should put him on our short story writers list.

9. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

British author who is also a physician, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859. He is the one who created the globally famous character detective Sherlock Holmes. He also created other famous characters like Brigadier Gerrard and Professor Challenger. Doyle has written 56 short story about the adventure of Sherlock Holmes who dearly loved by readers from all over the world.

sir arthur conan doyle best short story authors and their masterpieces you need to know

10. Stephen Kings

Born on 21 September 1947, Stephen King is one of the best short story writers of the 21st century particularly known for his dark tale story. Approximately 350 million copies of his works have been sold globally; many of which have been adapted into miniseries, TV series as well as films. His popular works among others are Everythingโ€™s Eventual:14 Dark Tales and Riding the Bullet.

11. Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is a British writer who was born in Cardiff, Wales on 13 September 1916. Some of his classic works are Matilda, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach and The Twist. His famous short stories are Kiss Kiss and The Pig.

12. J.D. Salinger

American best short story authors, J.D. Salinger is best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye of which story has sexual content. The writer who was born in New York, USA, on 1 January 1919 also wrote some short stories. Examples of his works on short story are For Esme-With Love and Squalor and A Perfect Day for Bananafish which was published in 1948.

13. Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires, Argentine on 12 August 1899. He has a great influence in Latin American literature. The theme for his stories is dreams, labyrinths and mythology.

14. Rudyard Kipling

This English short story writer, Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 10 December 1865. Jungle Book is his iconic book he wrote. Growing up in India, the inspiration for most of his stories are from his daily lives in the country. He is among the best short story writers in English both in the 19th and 20th century.

15. O. Henry

American best short story authors, O Henry who was born on 11 September 1862 is regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in the world. The Gift of Magi is his classic work that makes him famous.

Final Thoughts

Short stories are as interesting as novel; thus, you can pick this kind of literature if you only have a limited reading time. However, you need to look for the best short story that will not offer you great plot but also enrich you as well. Hope that the above mentioned 15 Best Short Story Authors will do you a favor in choosing their best works. Happy reading!

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Eight Short Story Writers You Should Be Reading Right Now

Topics: Pulitzer Prize , Literature

Nobody cares about literature anymore. Thatโ€™s the death-cry heard time and time again about the state of 21st Century reading. Sure, studies and surveys continually show the ways in which todayโ€™s average reader experiences literature are changing, from e-readers, smart phones, and tablets, to podcasts and other subscription-based audio book websites and services. 

These advancements are designed to help readers immerse themselves into fictional characters and worlds with more ease and expediency as the pace and rigors of everyday life in todayโ€™s society make it more and more difficult to pull-back from reality and allow our imaginations to explore and expand. But even with these time-saving gizmos, a large percentage of the population still cannot dedicate the time and energy to a 200 page novel at the end of a 9 to 5 workday that includes commuting, chores, and family time. The solution? The short story.

Short stories can satisfy your literary hunger in less time than novels.

If you only have thirty minutes a day to devote to literature, the short story provides a complete, encapsulated narrative experience to scratch your literary itch.

So here are eight recommendations for some of todayโ€™s most innovative, exciting short story authors you should check out to help you get down with your story-self in roughly 3,000 words or less. Okay, so it's not quite a Tweet, but it's not War and Peace, either.

1. Robert Olen Butler

robert_olen_butler

Story to check out: In 2001, Butler composed an entire short story in real-time during a series of 17 webcast sessions called Inside Creative Writing, all of which are available via iTunes. The result, This is Earl Sandt* , is set in 1913 and centers on a man and his son watching a bi-plane crash during an air show following Sunday morning church services. Butler called the real-time composition โ€œan extended teaching momentโ€ in an effort to provide insight into the creative process .

2. Tobias Woolf

Woolf is regarded just as highly for his work as a memoirist as a short story practitioner. Known for what critics refer to as โ€˜dirty realism,โ€™ Woolfโ€™s stories are often focused on the male adolescent experience and the ramifications of those experiences as his characters grow and mature. Woolf, perhaps best known for his memoir This Boyโ€™s Life (1989) and story collection Our Story Begins (2008), spent a number of years on faculty at Syracuse University with renowned short story master Raymond Carver. Woolfโ€™s other highly-acclaimed collections include 1981โ€™s In The Garden of North American Martyrs , and 1997โ€™s The Night in Question and Other Stories .

Story to check out: Powder , a three-page story in Woolfโ€™s The Night in Question and Other Stories , revolves around an estranged father and son on a country drive in the middle of the night during a blizzard. The storyโ€™s economy of language, evocative imagery, and plain-spoken voice is classic Woolf and lends itself to a heartfelt exploration of a strained father-son relationship.

3. George Saunders

Very few writers โ€” not to mention short story writers โ€” make the rounds of late-night television programs, but 2006 MacArthur Grant winner George Saunders is just such a writer, appearing on Comedy Centralโ€™s The Colbert Report** following the publication of his 2010 short story collection, The Tenth of December . Saunders, a former technical writer, has been publishing absurdist, form-bending stories since the early 1990s, tackling issues of commercialism, consumerism, and Americaโ€™s corporate culture. Saundersโ€™ The Tenth of December was nominated for the 2010 National Book Award and won that yearโ€™s prestigious Story Prize.

Story to check out: Indicative of Saundersโ€™ style and thematic preoccupations, The 400 Pound CEO is an absurdist send up of the traditional 9 to 5 office culture โ€” how can you ignore a story with a title like that? The story was originally published in Harpers in 1994 and collected in the highly-acclaimed collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline .

4. Jennifer Egan

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for her collection of connected stories, A Visit from the Goon Squad , Brooklyn-based writer Jennifer Egan is the rare writer who can transition from the novel to the short story form with grace and ease. Eganโ€™s collection zeros-in on aging rock music executive Bernie Salazar and the friends and enemies he made during his ascension to the heights of rock music stardom. The bookโ€™s construction had led some critics to question whether it functions as a novel or connected group of stories, and Egan herself has remained relatively mum as to whether the 13 sections of the book should be read as chapters or individual stories.

Story to check out: Following in Robert Olen Butlerโ€™s shoes , Egan used the technology of the day to her advantage by publishing the science fiction short story The Black Box via a series of Twitter posts in May 2012. The story, concerning a spy living in the near future, was tweeted by The New Yorkerโ€™s Twitter account during a span of nine days.

5. Lorrie Moore

A teenage prodigy, Moore won Seventeen Magazineโ€™s fiction writing contest at the tender age of 19. Sparked by her early achievement, Moore went on to study creative writing at the university level and worked as a paralegal in Manhattan following graduation, a time that heavily influenced her early stories. Known for her humorous takes on seemingly mundane situations, Mooreโ€™s big break came in 1983 with the publication of first collection, Self-Help , a group of stories parodying other popular self-help titles of the time. Mooreโ€™s playful take on form and language has helped cement her place as one of todayโ€™s most interesting and surprising short story writers , a moniker further evidenced by the release of 2014 collection, Bark .

Story to check out: Mooreโ€™s How to Be A Writer, collected in Self-Help , is perhaps most famous for its step-by-step instructions on how to become the most bloated, self-important, and boorish writer one could ever hope to be. The storyโ€™s satirical look at the wealth of clichรฉ s surrounding the literary life are incisive, poetic, and so on-point writers themselves have been known to cringe at live recitations of the piece.

6. Joe Meno

Chicago author Joe Meno published his first novel, Tender as Hellfire (1999) with St. Martinโ€™s Press at just 24-years-old while attending graduate school at Columbia College, Chicago and working at a flower delivery shop โ€” something that seems right in line with his South Side , working class background. Drawing from his own adolescent experiences as a punk teenager in the mid 1990s, Menoโ€™s novels and stories are spun with gritty, realistic voices and characters reflective of a time and place in the American Midwest. Menoโ€™s cult-classic coming-of-age novel Hairstyles of the Damned was released to universal acclaim in 2004, and heโ€™s since followed it with a series of best-sellers, including the collection of stories, Demons in the Spring (2008), and the 2015 novel, Marvel and a Wonder .   

Story to check out: From Menoโ€™s 2005 short story collection Bluebirds Used to Croon in The Choir , the story The Use of Medicine is the heartbreaking tale of a brother and sister who sedate squirrels, mice, and other animals around the neighborhood to put on puppet shows for their mother following their fatherโ€™s suicide. The storyโ€™s poetic, dreamlike language and deep emotional core offer moments of great humor and pathos as the children discover how to grieve.

7. Junot Diaz

A Dominican-American writer and professor at MIT, Diaz first broke onto the scene with the publication of his 1995 short story collection Drown โ€” an exploration of masculinity, the immigrant experience, and coming-of-age for the character of Yunior in New Jersey in the 1980s.

Diaz, who won a Pulitzer for his novel The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007 and a MacArthur Grant in 2012, is known for pulling punches when it comes to his explorations of identity, sexuality, and the influence of pop culture on young people. Diaz's second collection, This Is How You Lose Her , was released to universal acclaim in 2012.

Story to check out: Perhaps one of the most central stories in Diazโ€™s debut collection, How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) is the authorโ€™s most direct, humorous, emotive look at how Yunior longs to assimilate into American culture while maintaining a connection to his Dominican roots. Rendered as something of a how-to list for dating, the story quickly reveals Yuniorโ€™s vulnerability and discomfort with himself and his adopted homeland.

8. Jhumpa Lahiri

Indian-Bengali-American author Jhumpa Lahiri didnโ€™t see success for years after she began writing. A consummate scholar, Lahiri holds a number of advanced degrees in creative writing and literature from Boston College, so itโ€™s safe to say she knows her stuff. After what sheโ€™s characterized as "hundreds of rejections," Lahiri published her first collection, The Interpreter of Maladies , in 1999 to massive critical and commercial success, vaulting her into the stratosphere of todayโ€™s short story writers. Lahiriโ€™s debut was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and she was appointed to the National Committee of Arts and Humanities in 2010 by President Obama.

Story to check out: A Temporary Matter , the gut-wrenching opening story to Lahiriโ€™s debut collection, reveals the intimate portrait of a married coupleโ€™s efforts to grieve the loss of their stillborn child during a four-day electrical blackout in their home. The storyโ€™s masterful use of dialogue and scene give the reader an intimate glimpse at a relationship on the brink of complete collapse and the redemption the husband and wife hope to find.

Browse The Short Fiction Collection

*A discussion of This is Early Sandt at The Georgia Review blog. **A Huffington Post article featuring a recap and clips from Saunders' appearance on The Colbert Report. ***Source here . ****Source here .

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The Best Short Story Collections That Keep You Reading

Which of these captivating collections will you be picking up next?

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Short story collections offer the perfect medium for fiction writers to craft compelling, affecting narratives that simply may not warrant a full-length novel to explore the ideas. The short story collectionโ€™s compact form delivers concise, impactful ideas and can free authors to explore a multitude of themes, characters, story arcs and styles within a single collection. Collections of short fiction have allowed writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Flannery Oโ€™Connor and James Baldwin to experiment with different tones, voices and plot devices while providing readers with gripping but approachable standalone stories.

These 8 short story collections are extremely readable, cover a variety of genres and authors and may give you a newfound appreciation of writers you already love.

Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

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From one of the most compelling, propulsive voices in contemporary fiction, Moshfeghโ€™s 2017 short story collection is an eclectic compendium of some of her best fiction workโ€”much of which was previously published in places like The Paris Review , The New Yorker and Vice . Exceedingly atmospheric and permeated with Moshfeghโ€™s hallmark sordid wit, Homesick For Another World interrogates the ubiquitous afflictions of the human condition and our capacity for cruelty through the collectionโ€™s generally amoral, misanthropic protagonists. A highly anticipated follow-up to Moshfeghโ€™s breakout debut novel Eileen , Homesick was later named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017 and drew innumerable comparisons to the work of renowned authors like Mary Gaitskill and Flannery Oโ€™Connor.

Earth Angel by Madeline Cash

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An electric debut from author Madeline Cash, Earth Angel is a collection of short stories that rockets through the readerโ€™s imagination like a fever dream. Teeming with chimeric vignettes synthesizing the mundanely sinister realities of a capitalist culture with cataclysmic doomsday tropes, Earth Angel manages to be both endlessly funny and deeply poignant without feeling didactic. Cash both parodies and embraces the myopic stylings dominating popular fiction in a way that never feels malicious, but rather like the playful ribbing of a writer that refuses to take herself too seriously. Irreverent, compelling and laugh-out-loud funny, Earth Angel marks the emergence of one of contemporary fictionโ€™s most exciting new figures.

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

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A surrealist collection from Severance author Ling Ma, Bliss Montage marks Maโ€™s first published short story collection after her phenomenal debut novel (which has no relation to the recent Apple TV+ series, by the way). Uncanny, otherworldly and above all evocativeโ€” Bliss Montage contains eight wildly different stories each touching on universal themes of the human experience against phantasmagoric, though eerily familiar backdrops. Ranging from a tale of two friends bonded by their shared use of a drug that turns you invisible to the story of a tourist caught up in a fatalistic healing ritual, Maโ€™s unforgettable collection manages to be both ingeniously unique and undoubtedly universal at once. Somehow both outlandish and quotidian, Bliss Montage keeps readers wrapped up in Maโ€™s captivating prose from start to end.

Daddy by Emma Cline

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A thrilling examination of unspoken power structures (predominantly male power in a patriarchal society), Daddy by Emma Cline offers glimpses into the unexamined lives of each story's protagonist, often playfully alluding to, but never explicitly pointing to, a certain moral paradigm. Fraught familial dynamics, imbalanced romantic relationships and moral nuance permeate Clineโ€™s collection, and each story offers a taste of her infectious prose and incisive style. The ten stories on offer often end achingly realistically, rejecting a tidy, personally gratifying endingโ€”making each story appear as a certain tableau harkening to an idea rather than a traditional beginning, middle and end. Suspenseful, richly descriptive and engrossingโ€”Clineโ€™s collection begs to be devoured.

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

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First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami

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First published in July 2020, First Person Singular is a collection of eight short stories each told from, you guessed it, the first-person singular perspective. Written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, First Person Singular explores themes of nostalgia and lost love through stories from the perspective of mostly unnamed, middle-aged male protagonists believed to be based largely on the author himself, though some are more fantastical than others. Ranging from slice-of-life stories wherein the narrator reminisces on a past relationship, to the tale of a monkey doomed to fall in love with human women, the stories employ a myriad of hallmark Murakami techniques like magical realism, music, nostalgia and aging.

The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Dรกvila

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The first collection by beloved Mexican author Amparo Dรกvila to be translated into English, The Houseguest is a collection of 12 short stories touching on themes of obsession, paranoia and fear primarily featuring female protagonists and narrators. Often compared to horror writers like Edgar Allen Poe and Shirley Jackson, Dรกvilaโ€™s writing often deals with abstract feelings of dread and paranoia, imbuing them with magical realism to craft jarring, transfixing narratives that seem both eerily familiar and preternatural. Each tale menaced by an unseen, pernicious force, Dรกvilaโ€™s writing revels in its ambiguity with no straightforward answers. The Houseguest is an anxiety-inducing page-turner which will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Though technically a short story cycle (a collection of self-contained short stories arranged to convey a concept or theme greater than the sum of its atomized parts), Olive Kitteridge consists of 13 stories each taking place in the fictional town of Crosby, Maine. The stories predominantly center on Olive Kitteridge, a brusque but caring retired school teacher and longtime resident of Crosby. Other stories show Olive only as a secondary character or in a cameo capacity and are from the point of view of other townsfolk. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the collection was later adapted into a critically acclaimed miniseries starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Zoe Kazan and Bill Murray. Profound, heartbreaking and human, Olive Kitteridge is an unforgettable first-read that will still impact you even if you watched the miniseries before.

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@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} All the Best Books to Read Next

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เดฎเต‚เดจเตเดจเดพเด‚ เดจเต‚เดฑเตเดฑเดพเดฃเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เดฑเต‹เดฎเดฟเดฒเต† เดฐเดพเดœเดพเดตเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจ เด•เตเดฒเต‹เดกเดฟเดฏเดธเต เดฐเดพเดœเตเดฏเดคเตเดคเต เดชเดŸเตเดŸเดพเดณเด•เตเด•เดพเตผ เดตเดฟเดตเดพเดนเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเดคเต เดตเดฟเดฒเด•เตเด•เดฟเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เดฐเดพเดœเดพเดตเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เด‰เดคเตเดคเดฐเดตเต เดฎเดฑเดฟเด•เดŸเดจเตเดจเต เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตป เดŽเดจเตเดจ เด’เดฐเต เดชเตเดฐเต‹เดนเดฟเดคเตป เด•เดฎเดฟเดคเดพเด•เตเด•เดณเต† เดฐเดนเดธเตเดฏเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟ เดตเดฟเดตเดพเดนเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเด•เตเด•เดพเตป เดธเดนเดพเดฏเดฟเดšเตเดšเต. เดตเดฟเดตเดฐเดฎเดฑเดฟเดžเตเดžเต เด•เตเดชเดฟเดคเดจเดพเดฏ เดฐเดพเดœเดพเดตเต เดชเตเดฐเต‹เดนเดฟเดคเดจเต เดตเดงเดถเดฟเด•เตเดท เดตเดฟเดงเดฟเดšเตเดšเต.

เดคเดŸเดตเดฑเดฏเดฟเตฝ เด•เดดเดฟเดฏเตเดจเตเดจ เด•เดพเดฒเดคเตเดคเต เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตป เดœเดฏเดฟเดฒเดฑเตเดŸเต† เดฎเด•เดณเต† เดšเดฟเด•เดฟเดคเตเดธเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดตเดงเดฟเด•เตเด•เดชเตเดชเต†เดŸเตเดจเตเดจเดคเดฟเดจเตเดฎเตเดฎเตเดชเต โ€œเดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดจเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตปโ€ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เด…เดตเดธเดพเดจเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจ เด’เดฐเต เด•เดคเตเดคเต เด…เดตเตพเด•เตเด•เดพเดฏเดฟ เดŽเดดเตเดคเดฟเดฏเดคเดพเดฏเดฟ เดชเดฑเดฏเดชเตเดชเต†เดŸเตเดจเตเดจเต. เด…เดคเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เด“เตผเดฎ เดชเตเดคเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดจเดพเดฃเต เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตปเดธเต เดฆเดฟเดจเดคเตเดคเดฟเตฝ เด•เดฎเดฟเดคเดพเด•เตเด•เตพ เด•เดคเตเดคเต เด•เตˆเดฎเดพเดฑเดพเตป เดคเตเดŸเด™เตเด™เดฟเดฏเดคเดคเตเดฐเต‡! เด‡เดจเตเดคเตเดฏเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดธเต†เดฏเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเดจเต เด’เดฐเต เดฆเต‡เดตเดพเดฒเดฏเด‚ เด‰เดฃเตเดŸเต. เดชเตเดฐเดฃเดฏ เดชเดพเดฒเด• เดชเตเดฃเตเดฏเดพเดณเดจเตเดฑเต† เด—เต‹เดตเตป เด•เดชเตเดชเต‡เดณ เดŽเดจเตเดจเดฑเดฟเดฏเดชเตเดชเต†เดŸเตเดจเตเดจเต เด‡เดคเต. เด—เต‹เดตเดฏเดฟเดฒเต† เด•เดฒเด™เตเด•เต‚เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เด‰เดณเตเดณ saint valentine เดฆเต‡เดตเดพเดฒเดฏเด‚ เด•เดพเดฎเตเด•เต€เด•เดพเดฎเตเด•เดจเตเดฎเดพเดฐเตเดŸเต† เด’เด•เตเด•เต† เดชเตเดฐเดฟเดฏเดชเตเดชเต†เดŸเตเดŸ เด’เดฐเต เด‡เดŸเดฎเดพเดฃเต. เด‡เดคเต เดšเดฐเดฟเดคเตเดฐเด‚.

เดญเตผเดคเตเดคเดพเดตเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เดฎเตเด–เดคเตเดคเต‡เด•เตเด•เต เดตเต†เดŸเดฟเดฏเตเดคเดฟเตผเดคเตเดคเดคเต เด…เดžเตเดšเตเดตเดŸเตเดŸเด‚, เด•เตŠเดฒเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เตเดถเต‡เดทเด‚ เด’เดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดฎเดฟเดฃเตเดŸเดพเดคเต† เด†เดฑเต เดตเตผเดทเด‚

เดญเตผเดคเตเดคเดพเดตเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เดฎเตเด–เดคเตเดคเต‡เด•เตเด•เต เดตเต†เดŸเดฟเดฏเตเดคเดฟเตผเดคเตเดคเดคเต เด…เดžเตเดšเตเดตเดŸเตเดŸเด‚, เด•เตŠเดฒเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เตเดถเต‡เดทเด‚ เด’เดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดฎเดฟเดฃเตเดŸเดพเดคเต† เด†เดฑเต เดตเตผเดทเด‚

เด‡เดจเดฟ เด’เดฐเต เด“เตผเดฎเตเดฎเด•เตเด•เตเดฑเดฟเดชเตเดชเต... เด’เดฐเต เดจเดพเดŸเตป เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตป..

1970-เด•เดณเตเดŸเต† เด…เดตเดธเดพเดจเด‚ เด’เดฐเต เดนเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดธเด‚เดธเตเด•เดพเดฐเด‚ เด•เต‡เดฐเดณเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดŽเดคเตเดคเดฟเดจเต‹เด•เตเด•เดพเตป เดคเตเดŸเด™เตเด™เดฟเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เดคเดฒเดฎเตเดŸเดฟ เดจเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดตเดณเตผเดคเตเดคเดฟ, เด•เตเดณเดฟเด•เตเด•เดพเดคเต†, เดจเดจเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดคเต†, เดœเต€เตปเดธเตเด‚ เดŸเต€ เดทเตผเดŸเตเดŸเตเด‚ เดงเดฐเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด’เดฐเต เด—เดฟเดฑเตเดฑเดพเดฑเตเด‚ เดคเต‹เดณเดฟเดฒเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเต เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เตพ เดชเด เดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจ เด•เต‹เดณเดœเดฟเดจเต เดฎเตเดฎเตเดชเดฟเตฝ เด‡เดคเต เดชเต‹เดฒเตเดณเตเดณ เด’เดจเตเดจเตเดฐเดฃเตเดŸเต เด…เด•เตƒเดคเด™เตเด™เดณเต† เด…เด•เตเด•เดพเดฒเด˜เดŸเตเดŸเดคเตเดคเดฟเตฝ เด•เดพเดฃเดพเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เด…เดตเดฐเดฟเตฝ เดชเตเดฐเดงเดพเดจเดฟเดฏเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจ เดตเดฟเดณเดฟเดชเตเดชเต‡เดฐเตเดณเตเดณ เด’เดฐเต เดšเต†เดฑเตเดชเตเดชเด•เตเด•เดพเดฐเตป. เดฑเต‹เดฌเตผเดŸเตเดŸเต เดฎเตเด–เดพเดฌเดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเดฒเตเดฒเต‹ เดธเดฟเด‚เดฌเดพเดฌเตโ€Œเดตเต†เดฏเตเดŸเต† เดชเตเดฐเดงเดพเดจเดฎเดจเตเดคเตเดฐเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เดชเต‡เดฐเต. เด…เดคเต เดฒเต‹เดชเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด‰เดฃเตเดŸเดพเดฏเดคเดพเดฃเดคเตเดฐเต‡ เดˆ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ. เดธเดพเด•เตเดทเดฐ เด•เต‡เดฐเดณเด‚ เด†เดฃเดฒเตเดฒเต‹ เดจเดฎเตเดฎเตเดŸเต‡เดคเต. เด•เดฑเตเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฐเตเดฃเตเดŸเต เดšเตเดฐเตเดฃเตเดŸ เดฎเตเดŸเดฟเดฏเตเดณเตเดณ เดคเดŸเดฟเดฏเตป เด†เดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เดˆ เดนเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ.ย ย 

โ€˜เดฎเต€เดถ เดฎเดพเดงเดตเดจเดฟเดฒเต†โ€™ เดฎเดพเดงเดตเดจเต† เดชเต‹เดฒเต† เด…เดตเตป เด†เดฐเต†เดฏเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดจเต‹เด•เตเด•เดฟ เดฎเต€เดถ เดชเดฟเดฐเดฟเดšเตเดšเดพเตฝ เด† เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เด…เดจเตเดจเต เดฎเต‹เดทเดฃเดคเตเดคเดฟเดจเต เด•เดฏเดฑเตเด‚ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เด‰เดฑเดชเตเดชเดพเดฃเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดฏเตเดจเตเดจเดคเตเดชเต‹เดฒเต† เด†เดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เด•เดพเดฐเตเดฏเด‚. เด…เดตเตป เดเดคเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เดณเต† เดจเต‹เดŸเตเดŸเด‚ เด‡เดŸเตเดŸเดพเตฝ เด…เดตเดณเต† เด’เดฐเดพเดดเตเดš เด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต เดตเดณเดšเตเดšเตŠเดŸเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด’เดฐเต เดŸเต‚เดฑเดฟเดจเต เดชเต‹เดฏเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเต เดตเดฐเตเดฎเดคเตเดฐเต‡! เด…เดคเตเด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเตเดคเดจเตเดจเต† เดชเตเดฐเดพเดฏเดฎเดพเดฏ เดชเต†เตบเดฎเด•เตเด•เดณเตเดณเตเดณ เด…เดฎเตเดฎเดฎเดพเดฐเตเดŸเต† เดจเต†เดžเตเดšเดฟเดจเตเดณเตเดณเดฟเตฝ เดคเต€ เด†เดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เด…เดคเต เดตเดฟเดšเดพเดฐเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เดณเตเดŸเต† เดชเด เดฟเดชเตเดชเต เดจเดฟเตผเดคเตเดคเดฟ เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เด‡เดฐเตเดคเตเดคเดพเดจเตเด‚ เดชเดฑเตเดฑเดฟเดฒเตเดฒเดฒเตเดฒเต‹? เด†เดฐเต†เดฏเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดจเต‹เดŸเตเดŸเดฎเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเดฑเดฟเดžเตเดžเดพเตฝ เดชเด เดฟเดชเตเดชเต เด’เด•เตเด•เต† เด‡เดจเดฟ เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเดžเตเดžเตเด‚ เด†เด•เดพเด‚ เดŽเดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด† เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเตเด•เดพเตผ เดชเต†เดŸเตเดŸเต†เดจเตเดจเต เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เดจเดŸเดคเตเดคเตเด‚. เด‡เดคเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เด† เด•เดพเดฒเด˜เดŸเตเดŸเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฒเต† เดจเดพเดŸเตเดŸเตเดจเดŸเดชเตเดชเต.

14 เดตเตผเดทเด‚ เดฌเดพเด™เตเด•เต เด‰เดฆเตเดฏเต‹เด—เดธเตเดฅเตป, เด…เดฎเดฟเดคเดพเดญเต เดฌเดšเตเดšเดจเตŠเดชเตเดชเด‚ เด…เดตเดคเดพเดฐเด•เตป; เด…เดฎเต€เดทเต เดคเตเดฐเดฟเดชเดพเด เดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจ เดธเต‚เดชเตเดชเตผ เดนเดฟเดฑเตเดฑเต เดŽเดดเตเดคเตเดคเตเด•เดพเดฐเดจเต† เด…เดฑเดฟเดฏเดพเด‚

14 เดตเตผเดทเด‚ เดฌเดพเด™เตเด•เต เด‰เดฆเตเดฏเต‹เด—เดธเตเดฅเตป, เด…เดฎเดฟเดคเดพเดญเต เดฌเดšเตเดšเดจเตŠเดชเตเดชเด‚ เด…เดตเดคเดพเดฐเด•เตป; เด…เดฎเต€เดทเต เดคเตเดฐเดฟเดชเดพเด เดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจ เดธเต‚เดชเตเดชเตผ เดนเดฟเดฑเตเดฑเต เดŽเดดเตเดคเตเดคเตเด•เดพเดฐเดจเต† เด…เดฑเดฟเดฏเดพเด‚

เด‡เดจเตเดจเดคเตเดคเต† เดชเต‹เดฒเต† โ€˜เดฎเดธเดพเดฒ เดฆเต‹เดถ เดตเดพเด™เตเด™เดฟ เด•เตŠเดŸเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดฎเต†เดจเตเดจเตโ€™ เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เดชเต€เดกเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟเดšเตเดšเต.. เดตเดฟเดตเดพเดนเดตเดพเด—เตเดฆเดพเดจเด‚ เดจเตฝเด•เดฟ เดชเต€เดกเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟเดšเตเดšเต.. เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เดฎเตเด–เตเดฏเดฎเดจเตเดคเตเดฐเดฟเด•เตเด•เต เดชเดฐเดพเดคเดฟ เดชเดฑเดฏเดพเดจเตŠเดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดชเดฑเตเดฑเดฟเดฒเตเดฒ. เด‡เดฒ เดตเดจเตเดจเต เดฎเตเดณเตเดณเดฟเตฝ เดตเต€เดฃเดพเดฒเตเด‚ เดฎเตเดณเตเดณเต เดตเดจเตเดจเต เด‡เดฒเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดตเต€เดฃเดพเดฒเตเด‚ เด•เต‡เดŸเต เด‡เดฒเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดฃเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เดฎเต‹เด™เตเด™เตเด•เดฏเต† เดจเดฟเดตเตผเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฏเตเดณเตเดณเต! เด•เต‹เดณเดœเต เดตเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเต เด‡เดฑเด™เตเด™เดฟ เดตเดฐเตเดจเตเดจ เดชเต†เดฃเตเดฃเตเด™เตเด™เดณเต‹เดŸเต เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดชเตเดฐเดฃเดฏเดพเดญเตเดฏเตผเดฅเดจ เดจเดŸเดคเตเดคเตเด‚. เดšเดฟเดฒเดชเตเดชเต‹เตพ เด’เดฐเดพเดดเตเดš เด’เด•เตเด•เต† เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เดณเตเดŸเต† เด†เด™เตเด™เดณเดฎเดพเดฐเตเดŸเต† เด•เตˆเดฏเตเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดจเดฟเดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดจเดฒเตเดฒ เดคเดฒเตเดฒเต เด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต เด†เดถเตเดชเดคเตเดฐเดฟเดฏเดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เด†เด•เตเด‚. เดชเดฟเดจเตเดจเต† เด‰เดŸเดจเต† เด•เต‡เตพเด•เตเด•เดพเด‚ เด† เดชเต†เดฃเตเดฃเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เด†เดฏเต†เดจเตเดจเต!ย 

เดชเตเดฐเต€เดกเดฟเด—เตเดฐเดฟ เด•เดŸเดฎเตเดช เดŽเด™เตเด™เดจเต†เดฏเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดšเดพเดŸเดฟเด•เตเด•เดŸเดจเตเดจเต เดกเดฟเด—เตเดฐเดฟเด•เตเด•เต เดšเต‡เดฐเตเดจเตเดจ เดฎเดฃเตเดŸเดฟ เดชเต†เตบเดชเดฟเดณเตเดณเต‡เตผเด•เตเด•เต เดกเดฟเด—เตเดฐเดฟ เดฎเต‚เดจเตเดจเต เดตเตผเดทเด‚ เดคเต€เดฐเตเดจเตเดจเดคเดฟเดจเต เดฎเตเตปเดชเต‡ เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เดจเดŸเด•เตเด•เต‡เดฃเดฎเต‡เดฏเต†เดจเตเดจเดพเดฃเต เดชเตเดฐเดพเตผเดฅเดจ. เด•เดพเดฐเดฃเด‚ย  เดฌเดฟ.เดŽ.เดฏเตเด•เตเด•เต เดชเด เดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดฎเตเดชเต‹เตพ เด†เดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดฏเดพเดฎเดฒเตเดฒเต‹? เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเดžเตเดžเดคเตเด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต เดชเดฟเดจเตเดจเต† เดชเด เดฟเด•เตเด•เดพเตป เด’เดคเตเดคเดฟเดฒเตเดฒ, เด…เดฒเตเดฒเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเตฝ เดชเตเดทเตเดชเด‚เดชเต‹เดฒเต† เดžเดพเตป เด. เดŽ. เดŽเดธเต. เดŽเดดเตเดคเดฟเดฏเต†เดŸเตเดคเตเดคเต‡เดจเต† เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดฏเตเด•เดฏเตเด‚ เดšเต†เดฏเตเดฏเดพเด‚. เด…เด™เตเด™เดจเต† เด† เดจเดพเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเต† เด’เดฐเตเดชเดพเดŸเต เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เดณเตเดŸเต† เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เด•เดพเดฐเดฃเด‚ เดจเดŸเดจเตเดจเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเตเดฃเตเดŸเต†เดจเตเดจ เด…เดฐเดฎเดจ เดฐเดนเดธเตเดฏเด‚ เด…เด™เตเด™เดพเดŸเดฟเดชเตเดชเดพเดŸเตเดŸเต เด†เดฃเต.

เดฎเด•เตพ เด•เตเดฒเดพเดธเต เดฎเตเดฑเดฟเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดคเดฒเด•เดฑเด™เตเด™เดฟ เดตเต€เดฃเต, เด†เดถเตเดชเดคเตเดฐเดฟเดฏเดฟเดฒเดพเดฃเต; 'เด‡เดŸเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เดฟเดŸเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เต เด…เดฎเตเดฎเต‚เดฎเตเดฎ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฟเดฑเตเดชเดฟเดฑเตเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเตเดฃเตเดŸเต...'

เดฎเด•เตพ เด•เตเดฒเดพเดธเต เดฎเตเดฑเดฟเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดคเดฒเด•เดฑเด™เตเด™เดฟ เดตเต€เดฃเต, เด†เดถเตเดชเดคเตเดฐเดฟเดฏเดฟเดฒเดพเดฃเต; 'เด‡เดŸเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เดฟเดŸเดฏเตเด•เตเด•เต เด…เดฎเตเดฎเต‚เดฎเตเดฎ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฟเดฑเตเดชเดฟเดฑเตเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเตเดฃเตเดŸเต...'

เดˆ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเตเด‚ เด’เดฐเดฎเตเดฎ เดชเต†เดฑเตเดฑ เดฎเด•เตป เด†เดฃเดฒเตเดฒเต‹? เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เด•เดฃเตเดฃเต€เดฐเตเด‚ เด•เตˆเดฏเตเดฏเตเด‚ เดชเตเดฐเดพเตผเดฅเดจเดฏเตเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟ เดชเดณเตเดณเดฟเดฏเดฟเตฝ เด•เดฏเดฑเดฟ เด‡เดฑเด™เตเด™เดฟ, โ€œเดฆเตˆเดตเดฎเต‡ เดŽเดจเตเดฑเต† เดฎเต‹เดจเตเดฑเต† เดฎเดจเดธเตเดธเต เดฎเดพเดฑเตเดฑเดฃเต‡, เดจเดพเดŸเตเดŸเตเด•เดพเดฐเต†เด•เตเด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต เดฎเตเดดเตเดตเตป เดชเดฑเดฏเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟเด•เตเด•เดพเดคเต† เด…เดตเดจเต† เด•เตเดฑเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดจเดฒเตเดฒเดคเต เด•เต‡เตพเด•เตเด•เดพเตป เดŽเดจเดฟเด•เตเด•เต เด‡เดŸ เดตเดฐเตเดคเตเดคเดฃเต‡โ€ เดŽเดจเตเดจเตŠเด•เตเด•เต† เด•เดฐเดžเตเดžเต เดชเตเดฐเดพเตผเดฅเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจ เดธเดฎเดฏเด‚. เด’เดฐเต เดฆเดฟเดตเดธเด‚ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเต† เดคเดฟเดฐเด•เตเด•เดฟ เด•เตŠเดณเตเดณเดพเดตเตเดจเตเดจ เด’เดฐเต เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเต† เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟ เดŽเดคเตเดคเดฟ. เด•เดฑเตเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฐเตเดฃเตเดŸเต เดคเดŸเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดชเตŠเด•เตเด•เด‚ เด•เตเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด•เดพเดฃเดพเตป เดตเดฒเดฟเดฏ เดธเต—เดจเตเดฆเดฐเตเดฏเด‚ เด’เดจเตเดจเตเดฎเดฟเดฒเตเดฒเดพเดคเตเดค เด‡เดŸเดคเตเดคเดฐเด‚ เด•เตเดŸเตเด‚เดฌเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฒเต† เด’เดฐเต เด…เด‚เด—เด‚ เด†เดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต เดธเต‚เดธเดฎเตเดฎ. เด…เดคเตเดญเตเดคเดชเดฐเดคเดจเตเดคเตเดฐเดฏเดพเดฏ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เดธเต‚เดธเดฎเตเดฎเดฏเต† เดธเตเดตเต€เด•เดฐเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเดฟเดฐเตเดคเตเดคเดฟ เด†เด—เดฎเดจเต‹เดฆเตเดฆเต‡เดถเด‚ เดŽเดจเตเดคเต†เดจเตเดจเต เด…เดจเตเดตเต‡เดทเดฟเดšเตเดšเต. เด•เดพเดฐเดฃเด‚ เด‡เดจเตเดจเตเดตเดฐเต† เด…เดตเดจเต† เด…เดจเตเดตเต‡เดทเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เดจเดฒเตเดฒเดตเดฐเดพเดฐเตเด‚ เดตเดจเตเดจเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเตเดฒ. เดšเดฟเดฒ เด•เดžเตเดšเดพเดตเต เดธเตเดนเตƒเดคเตเดคเตเด•เตเด•เดณเต† เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เดชเต‹เดฒเตเด‚ย  เด•เดฏเดฑเตเดฑเดพเดฑเดฟเดฒเตเดฒ.

เดธเต‚เดธเดฎเตเดฎ เด•เดพเดฐเตเดฏเด‚ เด…เดตเดคเดฐเดฟเดชเตเดชเดฟเดšเตเดšเต. "เดžเดพเตปย  เดฌเดฟเดฐเตเดฆเดตเตเด‚ เดฌเดฟเดฐเตเดฆเดพเดจเดจเตเดคเดฐเดฌเดฟเดฐเตเดฆเดตเตเด‚ เด’เด•เตเด•เต† เดŽเดŸเตเดคเตเดคเต เด•เดดเดฟเดžเตเดžเต. เดชเดฒเดตเดดเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเด‚ เด’เดฐเต เดœเต‹เดฒเดฟเดฏเดฟเตฝ เด•เดฏเดฑเดพเตป เดถเตเดฐเดฎเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเตเดฃเตเดŸเต. เดชเด•เตเดทเต‡ เด’เดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดถเดฐเดฟเดฏเดพเดฏเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเตเดฒ. เด•เต‚เดŸเต† เดชเด เดฟเดšเตเดšเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจ เด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เตพเด•เตเด•เตŠเด•เตเด•เต† เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเดตเตเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเดžเตเดžเต เด’เดจเตเดจเต เดฐเดฃเตเดŸเต เดฎเด•เตเด•เดณเดพเดฏเดฟ. เด…เดชเตเดชเตป เดฎเดฐเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเดคเดฟเดจเต เดฎเตเดฎเตเดชเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเต† เด•เดฒเตเดฏเดพเดฃเด‚ เด•เดดเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด…เดฏเด•เตเด•เดพเดจเตเดณเตเดณ เดชเดฃเด‚ เดŽเดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เดจเดฒเตเดฒเตŠเดฐเต เดคเตเด• เดŽเดจเตเดฑเต† เดชเต‡เดฐเดฟเตฝ เดฌเดพเด™เตเด•เดฟเตฝ เด‡เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เดชเด•เตเดทเต‡ เดชเด เดฟเด•เตเด•เดพเตป เดตเดฒเดฟเดฏ เดฌเตเดฆเตเดงเดฟเดฏเดฟเดฒเตเดฒเดพเดคเตเดค เดฐเดฃเตเดŸเต เด†เด™เตเด™เดณเดฎเดพเดฐเตเด‚ เดšเต‡เตผเดจเตเดจเต เด“เดฐเต‹ เดฌเดฟเดธเดฟเดจเดธเต เดšเต†เดฏเตเดฏเดพเตป เด†เดฃเต†เดจเตเดจเตเด‚ เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด† เด•เดพเดถเต เดฎเตเดดเตเดตเตป เดŽเดŸเตเดคเตเดคเต เด…เดฑเดฟเดฏเดพเดคเตเดค เดชเดฒเดคเดฐเด‚ เดฌเดฟเดธเดฟเดจเดธเตเดธเตเด•เตพ เดšเต†เดฏเตเดคเต เด‡เดชเตเดชเต‹เตพ เดชเตŠเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดชเตเดชเตŠเดณเดฟเดžเตเดž เดจเดฟเดฒเดฏเดฟเดฒเดพเดฃเต. เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต† เดธเดนเดพเดฏเดฟเด•เตเด•เดฃเด‚" เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด•เตˆเด•เต‚เดชเตเดชเดฟ.ย 

48-เดพเด‚ เดตเดฏเดธเตเดธเดฟเตฝ, เดฎเด•เตพ เดจเตฝเด•เดฟเดฏ เด•เตเดฏเดพเดฎเดฑเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดคเตเดŸเด•เตเด•เด‚; เด•เตŠเตฝเด•เตเด•เดคเตเดคเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดœเดจเดฟเดšเตเดš เดฌเตเดฐเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดทเต เดซเตŠเดŸเตเดŸเต‹เด—เตเดฐเดซเตผโ€Œ

48-เดพเด‚ เดตเดฏเดธเตเดธเดฟเตฝ, เดฎเด•เตพ เดจเตฝเด•เดฟเดฏ เด•เตเดฏเดพเดฎเดฑเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดคเตเดŸเด•เตเด•เด‚; เด•เตŠเตฝเด•เตเด•เดคเตเดคเดฏเดฟเตฝ เดœเดจเดฟเดšเตเดš เดฌเตเดฐเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดทเต เดซเตŠเดŸเตเดŸเต‹เด—เตเดฐเดซเตผโ€Œ

เดธเต‚เดธเดฎเตเดฎเดฏเตเดŸเต† เด•เดฅ เด•เต‡เดŸเตเดŸเต เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟเดฏเตเดŸเต† เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เดšเต‹เดฆเดฟเดšเตเดšเต. "เด‡เดคเดฟเตฝ เดžเดพเตป เดŽเดจเตเดคเต เดšเต†เดฏเตเดฏเดพเดจเดพเดฃเต?" "เดตเดดเดฟเดฏเตเดฃเตเดŸเต. เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต† เดชเตเดฐเต‡เดฎเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเดจเตเดจเต เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เดŽเดจเตเดฑเต† เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเตเด•เดพเดฐเต‹เดŸเตเด‚ เดจเดพเดŸเตเดŸเตเด•เดพเดฐเต‹เดŸเตเด‚ เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เด’เดจเตเดจเต เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเดพเตฝ เดฎเดคเดฟ. เด† เดจเตเดฏเต‚เดธเตโ€Œ เดจเดพเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเตฝ เดชเดฐเดจเตเดจเดพเตฝ เด‡เดŸเดตเด•เด•เตเด•เดพเดฐเตเด‚ เดตเต‡เดฃเตเดŸเดชเตเดชเต†เดŸเตเดŸ เดฌเดจเตเดงเตเด•เตเด•เดณเตเด‚ เด…เดชเตเดชเต‹เตพ เดคเดจเตเดจเต† เดชเต‡เดŸเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด‡เดฒเตเดฒเดพเดคเตเดค เด•เดพเดถเต เด•เดŸเด‚ เดตเดพเด™เตเด™เดฟ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต† เด†เดฐเต†เด•เตเด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เด•เต†เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเด‚." เดŽเดจเตเดจเต. เด’เดฐเต เดชเต†เตบเด•เตเดŸเตเดŸเดฟเด•เตเด•เต เดคเดพเดฒเดฟ เดญเดพเด—เตเดฏเด‚ เด‰เดฃเตเดŸเดพเด•เดพเตป เดŽเด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เด’เดฐเต เด•เดพเดฐเดฃเด‚ เด†เด•เตเดฎเดฒเตเดฒเต‹ เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เด•เดฐเตเดคเดฟ เด…เดฎเตเดฎ เด…เดคเดฟเดจเต เดธเดฎเตเดฎเดคเดฟเดšเตเดšเต. เดจเดพเดŸเดฟเดจเตเด‚ เดตเต€เดŸเดฟเดจเตเด‚ เดชเตเดฐเดฏเต‹เดœเดจเด‚ เด‡เดฒเตเดฒเดพเดคเตเดค เด…เดตเดจเต† เด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเต เด‡เด™เตเด™เดจเต† เดŽเด™เตเด•เดฟเดฒเตเด‚ เด’เดฐเต เด‰เดชเด•เดพเดฐเด‚ เด‰เดฃเตเดŸเดพเด•เดŸเตเดŸเต† เดŽเดจเตเดจเต เด†เดคเตเดฎเด—เดคเด‚ เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด…เดตเตผ เดธเต‚เดธเดฎเตเดฎเดฏเต† เดฏเดพเดคเตเดฐเดฏเดพเด•เตเด•เดฟ.

"เดจเดฟเดจเตโ€เดฑเต† เดฎเต‹เดจเต† เดฎเดฐเตเดฏเดพเดฆเด•เตเด•เต เดตเดณเตผเดคเตเดคเดฟเดฏเดฟเดฒเตเดฒเต†เด™เตเด•เดฟเตฝ เด…เดŸเดฟเดšเตเดšเต เด•เดพเดฒเตŠเดŸเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเด‚, เดชเดฒเตเดฒเต เด•เตŠเดดเดฟเด•เตเด•เตเด‚" เดŽเดจเตเดจเตŠเด•เตเด•เต† เดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเต เด•เตŠเดฃเตเดŸเตเดณเตเดณ เด—เต‹เด—เต‹เดตเดฟเดณเดฟเดฏเตเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดพเดฃเต เดธเดพเดงเดพเดฐเดฃ เด† เดตเต€เดŸเตเดŸเดฟเดฒเต‡เด•เตเด•เต เด†เตพเด•เตเด•เดพเตผ เด•เดŸเดจเตเดจเต เดตเดฐเดฟเด•. เด†เดฆเตเดฏเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟเดŸเตเดŸเดพเดฃเต เด’เดฐเดพเตพ เด…เดชเต‡เด•เตเดทเดฏเตเดฎเดพเดฏเดฟ เดตเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเดคเต. เด…เดคเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต† เดšเต†เดฑเดฟเดฏ เด’เดฐเต เดธเดจเตเดคเต‹เดทเด‚ย  เด…เดฎเตเดฎเด•เตเด•เตเดฃเตเดŸเดพเดฏเดฟเดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต. เด…เด™เตเด™เดจเต† เดตเดฟเดตเดพเดนเด‚ เดจเดŸเด•เตเด•เดพเดคเตเดคเดตเดฐเตเดŸเต†เดฏเตเด‚ เดชเตเดฐเดฃเดฏ เดฆเดพเดนเดฟเด•เดณเตเดŸเต†เดฏเตเด‚ เดฎเดงเตเดฏเดธเตเดฅเดจเดพเดฏเดฟ เดจเดฎเตเดฎเตเดŸเต† เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ. เดšเตเดฐเตเด•เตเด•เดฟเดชเตเดชเดฑเดžเตเดžเดพเตฝ เดฎเตเด•เตเด•เดพเดชเตเดชเดฟ เดจเดฎเตเดฎเตเดŸเต† เดฎเดฑเตเดฑเตŠเดฐเต เดจเดพเดŸเตป เดตเดพเดฒเดจเตเดฑเตˆเตป เด…เดฒเตเดฒเต‡?

Malayalam Short Story ' Valentines Dinam February 14 2024 ' Written by Mary Josy Malayil

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IMAGES

  1. Three Famous Short Novels by William Faulkner

    famous short stories by famous authors

  2. 16 Famous Short Story Authors and Their Best Stories

    famous short stories by famous authors

  3. Short stories by classic authors (and where you can find and read them

    famous short stories by famous authors

  4. Fifty famous people, a book of short stories : Baldwin, James, 1841

    famous short stories by famous authors

  5. 10 Greatest American Short Story Writers

    famous short stories by famous authors

  6. Selected Short Stories: by Famous English Authors by Arthur M. Jensen

    famous short stories by famous authors

VIDEO

  1. famous stories#shorts

  2. 5 short life-changing non-fiction books

  3. โ€œArtists and Authorsโ€ with Powerful, Positive and Inspirational stories

  4. Unbelievable Novels Based on True Stories

  5. The foolish tiger story

  6. Brave girl and baby bear Short Story in English

COMMENTS

  1. 43 of the Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language

    Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) I will leave it to Kurt Vonnegut, who famously wrote, "I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce. It isn't remotely political.

  2. Classic Short Stories by Famous Authors

    The Jaunt [read it for free here ] The House on Maple Street [read it for free here ] (More Stephen King short stories here .) Haruki Murakami Short Stories Kino [read it for free here ] Scheherazade [read it for free here ] Samsa in Love [read it for free here ] Yesterday [read it for free here ] Town of Cats [read it for free here ]

  3. Bite-sized: 50 great short stories, chosen by Hilary Mantel, George

    John McGahern and Annie Proulx are among my favourite authors, but to dispel gloom I choose this story from Jane Gardam's 1980 collection The Sidmouth Letters. Reading this gleeful story in...

  4. 16 Famous Short Story Authors and Their Best Stories

    Edgar Allan Poe The influential short story writer was born in 1809. At 24, he wrote " The Murders in the Rue Morgue ," which set him on course as one of the most critically acclaimed writers ever. Edgar Allan later gained fame for his dark tales such as: The Tell-Tale Heart The Cask of Amontillado The Raven

  5. Best Short Story Writers

    From Voltaire to George Saunders, a complete list of the greatest short story authors who have written works in English or whose works have been translated into English. Usually, short fiction features a small cast of characters and is focused on one incident or anecdote and one overall mood, such as , or .

  6. Top 10 Classic Short Stories

    'The Signal Man' is a short story written by one of the world's most famous novelists, Charles Dickens. Image Credit: James Gardiner Collection via Flickr Creative Commons. 9. 'The Happy Prince' Author: Oscar Wilde Year: 1888

  7. The best short stories ever written

    Indira Birnie and Sam Parker 24 September 2021 The short story, says Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Steven Millhauser, has powers the novel only dreams of. "The novel is the Wal-Mart, the Incredible Hulk, the jumbo jet of literature," he wrote in his essay, The Ambition of the Short Story. " [And yet] the short story apologises for nothing.

  8. The Best Short Stories of All Time

    There's the Hugos and Nebulas for SFF, not to mention the World Fantasy Awards; the Shirley Jackson Award, the Stoker, the Edgar, and the O. Henry; the Ignyte and the Locus. Then there are anthologies such as The Longlist Anthology, Year's Best Science Fiction, and the Pushcart Prize. And of course, we have a few more recs for you in our ...

  9. Best Short Stories and Collections Everyone Should Read

    ๐Ÿ“š Which short story should you read next? Discover the perfect short story for you. Takes 30 seconds! Start quiz Free Short Stories to Read Right Now These individual short stories are the best of the best โ€” and the even better news is that they're available for free online for you to peruse.

  10. 10 Famous Short Stories You Can Read Online

    Here are some famous short stories that you can read online for free: 1. 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson. Best known for her horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson's short story is not any less chilling. It starts by describing a village and its annual lottery.

  11. 15 of the Best Short Stories Written by Women

    1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ' The Yellow Wallpaper '. 'The Yellow Wallpaper', an 1892 short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), has the structure and style of a diary.

  12. Twenty Great American Short Stories

    The Little Match Girl The Gift of the Magi (1905) by O. Henry This tender story -- one of the most famous titles in the short story genre -- is a must-read. The story is about a young couple and how they meet the challenge of buying each other a Christmas gifts when they don't have enough money.

  13. 10 of the Best Very Short Stories That Can Be Read Online

    And some of the greatest fiction-writers of the last two centuries have written memorable short stories which stretch to little more than a few pages: short enough to be read in a coffee break. Below, we introduce ten classic short stories - very short stories - from some of the finest authors in the literary canon.

  14. Top 20 short story collections

    Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl Roald Dahl is better known for children's books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but these creepy, tense and dark stories are a real treat for adults. A...

  15. Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read

    1. Katherine Mansfield, ' The Garden Party '. Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was the one writer Virginia Woolf was jealous of, according to Woolf herself. Mansfield never wrote a full-length novel, but wrote a number of classic modernist short stories.

  16. List of Famous Short Story Writers

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, The Twits and Matilda are some of his classic works. He also wrote short stories and novels meant for adults. 2 Ernest Hemingway (American Literary Icon Who Was Known for His Straightforward Prose & Use of Understatement) 35 11 Birthdate: July 21, 1899 Sun Sign: Cancer

  17. 100 Must-Read Contemporary Short Story Collections

    This list of must-read contemporary short story collections is sponsored by Random House's Buzziest Short Story Collections of 2018. From New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld's dazzling first collection, You Think It, I'll Say It, to National Book Award winner Denis Johnson's final collection, The Largesse of the Sea ...

  18. List of 15 Best Short Story Authors and Their ...

    American best short story authors, O Henry who was born on 11 September 1862 is regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in the world. The Gift of Magi is his classic work that makes him famous. Final Thoughts. Short stories are as interesting as novel; thus, you can pick this kind of literature if you only have a limited reading time.

  19. Great Famous Short Stories

    Short Stories. " The Tell-Tale Heart " by Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe published this classic short story in 1843. The narrator of the story argues that he is not mad as he explains how he killed an old man. " To Build a Fire " by Jack London. Jack London's story is set in the Yukon. A man and his dog have ventured out into the dangerously ...

  20. Eight Short Story Writers You Should Be Reading Right Now

    A Dominican-American writer and professor at MIT, Diaz first broke onto the scene with the publication of his 1995 short story collection Drown โ€” an exploration of masculinity, the immigrant experience, and coming-of-age for the character of Yunior in New Jersey in the 1980s. Diaz, who won a Pulitzer for his novel The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007 and a MacArthur Grant in 2012 ...

  21. The Best Short Story Collections That Keep You Reading

    A surrealist collection from Severance author Ling Ma, Bliss Montage marks Ma's first published short story collection after her phenomenal debut novel (which has no relation to the recent Apple ...

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