Must-Read Short Story Collections

One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. 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.

An exhilarating debut by a young writer from Pakistan: provocative, funny, disarmingly original stories that upend traditional notions of identity and family, and peer into the vulnerable workings of the human heart.

In this collection, fifteen celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long understood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.

Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically. With elements of science fiction and fantasy, fabulism and magical realism, Brenda Peynado uses her stories to reflect our flawed world, and the incredible, terrifying, and marvelous nature of humanity.

In this dazzling and prizewinning collection, Attrib. presents a cast of unforgettable characters standing on the precipice of emotional events and finding it fiendishly impossible to express themselves. With intimate, irreverent, and playful prose, Williams rejoices in both the possibilities and limitations of language, as well as the very human need to be known and understood—despite our own best efforts.

Populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, these stories walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

This stunning, exquisitely written collection introduces a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking. With rich character portraits and a sense of history reverberating into the present, these stories are a dazzling, poignant, and lyrical look on family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art. 

Based on traditional Vietnamese folk tales told to Kupersmith by her grandmother, these fantastical, chilling, and thoroughly contemporary stories are a boldly original exploration of Vietnamese culture, addressing both the immigrant experience and the lives of those who remained behind.

Sixteen tales by bestselling authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. The heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.

A selection of the best and most representative contemporary American short fiction from 1970 to 2020, including such authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Toni Cade Bambara, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, and Ted Chiang, hand-selected by celebrated editor and anthologist John Freeman.

Bryan Washington’s brilliant, viscerally drawn world vibrates with energy, wit, raw power, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.

With the intimate voice of a best friend, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count. Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Phoebe Robinson’s latest collection is a call to arms.

A kaleidoscopic portrait of five generations scattered across Asia and the United States, Inheritors is a heartbreakingly beautiful and brutal exploration of a Japanese family fragmented by the Pacific side of World War II. This intricate tapestry of stories illuminates the complex ways in which we live, interpret, and pass on our tangled histories.

Original contemporary love stories set during life in lockdown by some of today’s most popular YA authors. Romantic, realistic, sweet, and uplifting, Together, Apart is a collection of finding love in unexpected places during an unprecedented time…each with the one thing we all want: a guaranteed happy ending.