2017 Favorites
The magic tricks roll on.
Four years in and going strong. It’s been a lot of fun. My goal is 10 years, so we’ve got a ways to go yet. I’m incredibly appreciative for everyone who reads the website and leaves comments with insights or – better yet – recommendations for further reading.
Anyhow, here is the annual SSMT list of the best short stories I read this year for the website. You’re welcome to check out the lists for 2014 or 2015 or 2016. Stuart Dybek makes his third appearance in four years’ of the annual Top 10. George Saunders, Anton Chekhov, and Alice Munro are regulars as well. My taste is certainly solidifying.
But I digress. The point is: thank you for reading; have a wonderful new year; and go read a good short story!
- ‘Axis’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Sea Oak’ by George Saunders
- ‘Pastoralia’ by George Saunders
- ‘Roman Fever’ by Edith Wharton
- ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘We Didn’t’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘In Football Season’ by John Updike
- ‘Ibn-Hakam al-Bokhari, Murdered In His Labyrinth’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Vanka’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘Cat Person’ by Kristen Roupenian
- ‘Death And The Compass’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘The Promise’ by John Steinbeck
- ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Hans Christian Andersen
- ‘Fiction’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Master Eustace’ by Henry James
- ‘Offertory’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Last Evenings On Earth’ by Roberto Bolaño
- ‘Daylight Come’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘The Whole Town’s Sleeping’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Why I Live At The P.O.’ by Eudora Welty
- ‘The Man Of The House’ by Frank O’Connor
- ‘Cathedral’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘My Purple Scented Novel’ by Ian McEwen
- ‘The Barber’s Unhappiness’ by George Saunders
- ‘The Moons Of Jupiter’ by Alice Munro
- ‘At Grandmother’s’ by Isaac Babel
- ‘The Red Bow’ by George Saunders
- ‘Christmas Poem’ by John O’Hara
- ‘The Second Bakery Attack’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘The Dinner Party’ by Joshua Ferris
- ‘How To Tell Stories To Children’ by Miranda July
- ‘Separating’ by John Updike
- ‘A Loaf Of Bread’ by James Alan McPherson
- ‘The Necklace’ by Guy de Maupassant
- ‘Brothers’ by Sherwood Anderson
- ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Water Liars’ by Barry Hannah
- ‘Chicxulub’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- ‘The Man On The Stairs’ by Miranda July
- ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’ by Annie Proulx
- ‘The Toughest Indian In The World’ by Sherman Alexie
- ‘The Adventure Of The Empty House’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘A Retrieved Reformation’ by O. Henry
- ‘Coach’ by Mary Robison
- ‘The Paperhanger’ by William Gay
- ‘The Garden Party’ by Katherine Mansfield
- ‘The Party’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘Ranch Girl’ by Maile Meloy
- ‘A Late Encounter With The Enemy’ by Flannery O’Connor
- ‘Christmas Gift’ by Robert Penn Warren
- ‘Landfill’ by Joyce Carol Oates
- ‘Snow Angel’ by Stephanie Vaughn
- ‘Uncle Raymond’ by Nelson Eubanks
- ‘Postcard’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Hanging Stranger’ by Philip K. Dick
- ‘A Summer Tragedy’ by Arna Bontemps
- ‘First Confession’ by Frank O’Connor
- ‘Other Women’ by Stephanie Vaughn
- ‘New York Day Women’ by Edwidge Danticat
- ‘Phone Calls’ by Roberto Bolaño
- ‘Sault Ste. Marie’ by David Means
- ‘The Year Of Spaghetti’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘Who’s Passing For Who?’ by Langston Hughes
- ‘My Oedipus Complex’ by Frank O’Connor
- ‘A Piece Of News’ by Eudora Welty
- ‘Smother’ by Joyce Carol Oates
- ‘The Other Woman’ by Sherwood Anderson
- ‘The Brown Chest’ by John Updike
- ‘The Emerald Light In The Air’ by Donald Antrim
- ‘Where The Door Is Always Open And The Welcome Mat Is Out’ by Patricia Highsmith
- ‘Action Will Be Taken’ by Heinrich Boll
- ‘The Two Kings And The Two Labyrinths’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Aurora’ by Junot Díaz
- ‘Ligeia’ by Edgar Allan Poe
- ‘The Altar Of The Dead’ by Henry James
- ‘Winky’ by George Saunders
- ‘Images’ by Alice Munro
- ‘City Visit’ by Adam Haslett
- ‘Thanks For The Ride’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Lotus’ by Jean Rhys
- ‘Playing With Dynamite’ by John Updike
- ‘A Family Man’ by V.S. Pritchett
- ‘The Last Night Of The World’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘He Also Loved’ by Claude McKay
- ‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘A Piece Of String’ by Guy de Maupassant
- ‘The Cousins’ by Joyce Carol Oates
- ‘August 25, 1983’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Legal Aid’ by Frank O’Connor
- ‘A Case Of Identity’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘An Ounce Of Cure’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Furnished Room’ by O. Henry
- ‘The End Of FIRPO In The World’ by George Saunders
- ‘Stitches’ by Antonya Nelson
- ‘Communist’ by Richard Ford
- ‘Malta Sheffer’ by Nelson Eubanks
- ‘Transients In Arcadia’ by O. Henry
- ‘On The Gull’s Road’ by Willa Cather
- ‘The Skylight Room’ by O. Henry
- ‘Most Die Young’ by Camille Bordas
- ‘A Subject Of Childhood’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Coming Close To Donna’ by Barry Hannah
- ‘The Wind-Up Bird And Tuesday’s Women’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘Son Of The Wolfman’ by Michael Chabon
- ‘The Harvest’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Rapture Of The Deep’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Mauricio (‘The Eye’) Silva’ by Roberto Bolaño
- ‘The Aleph’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Revenge Of The Lawn’ by Richard Brautigan
- ‘The Peasant Marey’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ‘A Short Walk From The Station’ by John O’Hara
- ‘Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid
- ‘The Man On The Threshold’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Closing Time’ by Neil Gaiman
- ‘A Resumed Identity’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘St. John’s Eve’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘Man From The South’ by Roald Dahl
- ‘Christmas Freud’ by David Rakoff
- ‘The Mystery Of The Spanish Chest’ by Agatha Christie
- ‘The Oracle Of The Dog’ by G.K. Chesterton
- ‘Dabchick’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘Other Factors’ by Mary Gaitskill
- ‘The Blind Man’ by D.H. Lawrence
- ‘How To Talk To Girls At Parties’ by Neil Gaiman
- ‘Permission To Enter’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘An Honest Thief’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ‘How’ by Roxane Gay
- ‘Teller’s Ticket’ by Robert Flanagan
- ‘Some Terpsichore’ by Elizabeth McCracken
- ‘The Prophetic Pictures’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- ‘Prodigal’ by Laura D. Nichols
- ‘Tom-Rock Through The Eels’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘The Lady’s Maid’ by Katherine Mansfield
- ‘Days Of 1978’ by Roberto Bolaño
- ‘Disguised’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- ‘The Lovely Troubled Daughters Of Our Old Crowd’ by John Updike
- ‘Gesturing’ by John Updike
- ‘Wingless’ by Jamaica Kincaid
- ‘Henri Simon Leprince’ by Roberto Bolaño
- ‘The Terror’ by Guy de Maupassant
- ‘The Circular Ruins’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘One Summer Night’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Vine On A House’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Quitters, Inc.’ by Stephen King
- ‘There Was Once’ by Margaret Atwood
- ‘Until The Girl Died’ by Anne Enright
- ‘The Sunday After Christmas’ by Mavis Gallant
- ‘Through The Tunnel’ by Doris Lessing
- ‘The Letter From Home’ by Jamaica Kincaid
- ‘It Was Romance’ by Miranda July
- ‘In The Night’ by Jamaica Kincaid
- ‘The Drill’ by Breena Clarke
- ‘And/Or’ by Sterling Brown
- ‘Hunting The Deceitful Turkey’ by Mark Twain
- ‘The Jockey’ by Carson McCullers
- ‘Little Man’ by Michael Cunningham
- ‘Republica Y Grau’ by Daniel Alarcon
- ‘The Masculine Principle’ by Frank O’Connor
- ‘The Romance Of A Busy Broker’ by O. Henry
- ‘Regret’ by Kate Chopin
- ‘A Novel In Nine Letters’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ‘The Crocodile’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ‘One Officer, One Man’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Escape From New York’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘Rest Stop’ by Stephen King
- ‘Misery’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘At Long Last’ by Jamaica Kincaid
- ‘Letters From The Samantha’ by Mark Helprin
- ‘Manikin’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals’ by John Updike
- ‘To Those Of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out Of O’Hare’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘The Duchess And The Jeweller’ by Virginia Woolf
- ‘Graven Image’ by John O’Hara
- ‘And Lead Us Not Into Penn Station’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Midnight And I’m Not Famous Yet’ by Barry Hannah
- ‘North Coast’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘Even Greenland’ by Barry Hannah
- ‘Good Boys Deserve Favors’ by Neil Gaiman
- ‘The Stolen Body’ by H.G. Wells
- ‘Soldiers’ by Ellease Southerland
- ‘At The Animal Shelter’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Murder’ by Amy Hempel
- ‘Love Song, For A Moog Synthesizer’ by John Updike
- ‘Where You’ll Find Me’ by Ann Beattie
- ‘The Angel Of The Bridge’ by John Cheever
- ‘Nobody’s Story’ by Charles Dickens
- ‘A Different Kind Of Imperfection’ by Thomas Beller
- ‘The Wait’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Good People’ by David Foster Wallace
- ‘Game Plan’ by Don DeLillo
- ‘Two Men Arrive In A Village’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘Moonlit Landscape With Bridge’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘Bobok’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ‘Meet The President!’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘A Change Of Treatment’ by W.W. Jacobs
- ‘Good Intentions’ by Etgar Keret
- ‘Incarnations Of Burning Children’ by David Foster Wallace
- ‘The Beggarwoman Of Vocarno’ by Heinrich von Kleist
- ‘The Boarded Window’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘A Baby Tramp’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘The White Maniac – A Doctor’s Tale’ by Mary Fortune
- ‘Trek’ by Barry Hannah
- ‘Cowardice’ by Abdeslam Boulaich
- ‘Christmas By Injunction’ by O. Henry
- ‘The Errors Of Santa Claus’ by Stephen Leacock
- ‘The Feast Of Nemesis’ by Saki
As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.
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