Celebrating Short Stories
A short-story can be and has been so many different things that it seems wrong to lump them all together, but here are a few contemporary authors with their takes on the medium to give you a taste of how it's holding up in the 21st century. Below that find an array of short-stroy anthologies for a broader stroke, as well as list of a few great magazines from our digital collection that prominently feature new stories.
The strange case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner
This small collection showcases Kushner’s ability to ground the quirky and somewhat surreal in people, places, and settings that feel remarkably genuine. Her characters bubble beneath the surface of tedium, and explore themselves in their experience of the world more than anything, creating a constant tension between simplicity and complication, and truth and lie. Her fiction covers a wide breadth of topics, from political to mundane, in quick endearing fashion.
Blasphemy brings together a wide variety of previously published stories from Alexie’s career, along with a few newer ones. He writes most often of life on Native American reservations, with a tender and thoughtful eye towards the realities of being a Native American in modern America. His writing takes on a tone of folklore and an intimate perspective of narration that makes each story feel more like fact than fiction, and not only presents a slice-of-life not otherwise addressed in much contemporary writing, but does so with a pure skill for storytelling near unmatched.
Jamilti & other stories by Rutu Modan
In this book graphic novelist Rutu Modan takes on short-form storytelling to remarkable effect. Sometimes strikingly realistic, sometimes downright magical, each piece is different from the last right down to the artistic style Modan chooses to illustrate it. Many deal with day-to-day life in Modan’s native Israel, offering a sincere sometimes sober sometimes humorous glimpse at the world outside our own. They all have immense amounts of heart though, and they all strike with a stunning originality.
The assassination of Margaret Thatcher: stories by Hilary Mantel
Acclaimed author Hilary Mantel’s most recent work continues her tradition of dark comic prose, and somewhat gothic critiques of social order. This book is full of twists, turns, and sly wordplay revealing a host of characters that could be hiding just around the corner. Mantel’s flair for language and detail, and the skill with which she paces and builds each story show an impressive understanding of the craft of writing; and this work shows a great willingness to use that understanding to create and explore worlds unsettlingly similar to our own.
Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders
George Saunders is one of the most popular short-story writers working today. This most recent collection brings together an array of his work, and delves into his ability to turn from zany amusement to dark questions and back again. His writing flows in and out of the streams of internal consciousness and imagination of his characters, against detailed alive settings, always building on its own momentum and revealing new twists and old memories.
Short stories come in all shapes, siezes, and genres check-out these diverse anthologies for more great reading...
The Best American Short Stories 2014
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2014 
The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014
2012 Pushcar Prize XXXVI: Best of the Small Presses
All about skin: short fiction by women of color
20 under 40: Stories from the New Yorker
21st Century Dead: A Zombie Anthology
Find even more from archived and fresh new issues of these stand-out publications in our collection:
Ploughshares The New Yorker Kenyon Review Harper's Magazine
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