Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Yes. I am following these.

Currently, I am smitten with Stories, All New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio.
MUST. BUY.

What are these? Are they short story collections? Yes, I know - it seems obvious, but just checking. :)

Yes, they co-edited this. It's a collection of short stories fantasy, horror, science fiction. There's a great introduction by Neil Gaiman.

I'm currently revisiting the short story form, so all suggestions of great collections are appreciated. Thanks!

Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House has been one of my favorite short story collections since I was a kid. I think Who Are We This Time (from that collection) is my favorite short story, period.

I'm sorry - I love to write short stories, but I don't actually like to read them. I like a longer term investment. The only ones I read are when I love a world so much, I'll read anything the author writes. So, I can't give you any suggestions.

But those are terrific authors, so I imagine that collection is pretty good.

I don't really like to read short stories either, with the exception of one book.

That is, Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. One of the creepiest bunch of short stories ever written.

Neil Gaiman does some pretty good short stories, but I, like Mira, don't enjoy reading them because there's not a lot of investment on my part. Margaret Atwood does some pretty good short experimental stories that I have enjoyed too.

Sommer Leigh wrote:That is, Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. One of the creepiest bunch of short stories ever written.

You are so right! We had to read a few of her stories for American Lit. Have you read Revelation? To add to good short stories I would say The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she's a feminist writer. Most of the short stories I read are for Literature classes, so if you're looking for something more recent I can't help you there. I really like Mari Sandoz's Hostiles and Friendlies, she's a Nebraskan author and her work is a somewhat disturbing take on homestead life. Some stories by Kate Chopin are pretty good, too.

Moni12 wrote:

Sommer Leigh wrote:That is, Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. One of the creepiest bunch of short stories ever written.

You are so right! We had to read a few of her stories for American Lit. Have you read Revelation? To add to good short stories I would say The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she's a feminist writer. Most of the short stories I read are for Literature classes, so if you're looking for something more recent I can't help you there. I really like Mari Sandoz's Hostiles and Friendlies, she's a Nebraskan author and her work is a somewhat disturbing take on homestead life. Some stories by Kate Chopin are pretty good, too.

I read everything in A Good Man is Hard to Find but I don't recall the names of each individual story. The title story of the book still troubles me. I did some work in college on some of her stories.

I remembered the Margaret Atwood book I was thinking of: Good Bones and Simple Murders. It isn't exactly a book of short stories...more like a book of short creative experiments. They are really quite wonderful.

If you really love short stories, you may want to consider checking out NPR's 3 min fiction contest. The round 5 winner was beautifully written. I got goose bumps reading it.
Enjoy!

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131314768 ... -winner-is

Not sure what you like, since Stories is a pretty eclectic mix, but...

Pump Six, Paolo Bacigalupi -- Bacigalupi is one of my favorite sci-fi short fiction writers. I'm a huge fan because his sci-fi is still groundbreaking, and it deals with issues that few authors have examined. He got his start with short stories, several of which can be read on his site here to see if they're your thing. Many of the stories were nominated for Hugo's/Nebulas, and Bacigalupi's recent forays into longer fiction won him this years Hugo, Nebula, and National Book Award.

The People of Sand and Slag is my favorite story.

Our Story Begins, Tobias Wolff -- Wolff writes literary fiction. He's also extremely talented, and I like his story because they're incredibly perceptive. The characters in them are well-formed, and Wolff knows how to look at the subtleties that make them tick. He also does it with relatively few words -- check out Bullet in the Brain, also one of my favorite short stories. I've never read a short story under 2k words with as much emotional impact as Bullet.

The Roald Dahl Omnibus, Roald Dahl -- Everyone knows Roald Dahl for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, etc., but not as many people know about his short stories written for adults. I assume you like Fantasy from Stories, so this should be right up your alley. Dahl actually has several collections, but this one is the best, and even though it's out of print, it's still really, really cheap.

Roald Dahl's short stories read like Flannery O'Connor mixed with Ray Bradbury: the style is short and powerful, but each story has a sort of dark, chilling twist to it. Dahl's short stories definitely have a HUGE amount of black humor to them. They're perfect for reading just before bed, studying plot, or just the extra ten minutes you have to burn.

I read a TON of short stories, so if you're looking for more suggestions, I can add them later.

Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick all the way. Behind Lies the Wub - Awesome.

My favorite short story is Dr. Heidegger's experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne. :)

CV

Sommer Leigh wrote:I read everything in A Good Man is Hard to Find but I don't recall the names of each individual story. The title story of the book still troubles me. I did some work in college on some of her stories.

We were assigned that story well, decades ago, and it's the only one I remember because everyone else thought it was funny when the guy left the poor girl in the diner. "Heck," one guy said, "The old woman got what she wanted and the guy got what he wanted."

That story made my skin crawl.