I read 101 short stories this year. This is my annual list of what I thought were the 25 best of those reads – all highly recommended gems. As always, many more could be included but I’ve a heart of ice of late regarding the cut-off point. I’m especially careful regarding anthologies I’ve stories in due to a natural bias. These lists also favour the longer short story form over flash fiction.
Regarding Olive Kitteridge, the story ‘Pharmacy’ is only missing as I’ve read and listed it in previous lists. Do hunt it down – it’s one of my all-time faves!
Top 25 Short Story Reads
‘Tulips’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)
‘River’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)
‘A Little Burst’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in The New Yorker in 1998)
‘The Devil’s Whatever’ Andy Duncan (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)
‘The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril’ Scott Lynch (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)
‘The Piano Player’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)
‘Winter Concert’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in Ms. in 1999)
‘Security’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)
‘Ship in a Bottle’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published as ‘Running Away’ in Seventeen in 1992)
‘Yes, the Opium’ Stephen Myer (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)
‘Root Cellar: A Juke Joint Gothic’ J. Michael Hayes (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)
'Incoming Tide' Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)
‘The Staff in the Stone’ Garth Nix (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)
‘Acacia’ JoAnna Novak (from Arkanasas International 07)
‘Lenin’s Mausoleum’ Ivan Shipnigov (from Arkanasas International 07)
‘A Night at the Tarn House’ George R.R. Martin (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)
‘Death Calendar’ Brian Bianchi (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)
‘Tigers in the Sun’ Gabriel Mara (from The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson)
‘Criminal’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in South Carolina Review in 1994)
‘East Wind in Carrall Street’ Holly Schofield (from The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson, originally published in Clockwork Canada)
‘A Different Road’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in Tin House in 2007)
‘The Governor’ Tim Powers (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)
‘The Return’ Shikhandin (read in Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson, originally published by Curious Blue Press)
‘In Blood, In Feathers, In Moonlight’ Deborah L. Davitt (read in Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson. Originally published in Galaxy’s Edge)
‘Grim Diggers’ T. Fox Dunham (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)
