2017 favorites

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!

1. ‘Axis’ by Alice Munro
2. ‘Sea Oak’ by George Saunders
3. ‘Pastoralia’ by George Saunders
4. ‘Roman Fever’ by Edith Wharton
5. ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ by Haruki Murakami
6. ‘We Didn’t’ by Stuart Dybek
7. ‘In Football Season’ by John Updike
8. ‘Ibn-Hakam al-Bokhari, Murdered In His Labyrinth’ by Jorge Luis Borges
9. ‘Vanka’ by Anton Chekhov
10. ‘Cat Person’ by Kristen Roupenian
11. ‘Death And The Compass’ by Jorge Luis Borges
12. ‘The Promise’ by John Steinbeck
13. ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Hans Christian Andersen
14. ‘Fiction’ by Alice Munro
15. ‘Master Eustace’ by Henry James
16. ‘Offertory’ by Amy Hempel
17. ‘Last Evenings On Earth’ by Roberto Bolaño
18. ‘Daylight Come’ by Amy Hempel
19. ‘The Whole Town’s Sleeping’ by Ray Bradbury
20. ‘Why I Live At The P.O.’ by Eudora Welty
21. ‘The Man Of The House’ by Frank O’Connor
22. ‘Cathedral’ by Raymond Carver
23. ‘My Purple Scented Novel’ by Ian McEwen
24. ‘The Barber’s Unhappiness’ by George Saunders
25. ‘The Moons Of Jupiter’ by Alice Munro
26. ‘At Grandmother’s’ by Isaac Babel
27. ‘The Red Bow’ by George Saunders
28. ‘Christmas Poem’ by John O’Hara
29. ‘The Second Bakery Attack’ by Haruki Murakami
30. ‘The Dinner Party’ by Joshua Ferris
31. ‘How To Tell Stories To Children’ by Miranda July
32. ‘Separating’ by John Updike
33. ‘A Loaf Of Bread’ by James Alan McPherson
34. ‘The Necklace’ by Guy de Maupassant
35. ‘Brothers’ by Sherwood Anderson
36. ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by Ray Bradbury
37. ‘Water Liars’ by Barry Hannah
38. ‘Chicxulub’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
39. ‘The Man On The Stairs’ by Miranda July
40. ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’ by Annie Proulx
41. ‘The Toughest Indian In The World’ by Sherman Alexie
42. ‘The Adventure Of The Empty House’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
43. ‘A Retrieved Reformation’ by O. Henry
44. ‘Coach’ by Mary Robison
45. ‘The Paperhanger’ by William Gay
46. ‘The Garden Party’ by Katherine Mansfield
47. ‘The Party’ by Anton Chekhov
48. ‘Ranch Girl’ by Maile Meloy
49. ‘A Late Encounter With The Enemy’ by Flannery O’Connor
50. ‘Christmas Gift’ by Robert Penn Warren
51. ‘Landfill’ by Joyce Carol Oates
52. ‘Snow Angel’ by Stephanie Vaughn
53. ‘Uncle Raymond’ by Nelson Eubanks
54. ‘Postcard’ by Alice Munro
55. ‘The Hanging Stranger’ by Philip K. Dick
56. ‘A Summer Tragedy’ by Arna Bontemps
57. ‘First Confession’ by Frank O’Connor
58. ‘Other Women’ by Stephanie Vaughn
59. ‘New York Day Women’ by Edwidge Danticat
60. ‘Phone Calls’ by Roberto Bolaño
61. ‘Sault Ste. Marie’ by David Means
62. ‘The Year Of Spaghetti’ by Haruki Murakami
63. ‘Who’s Passing For Who?’ by Langston Hughes
64. ‘My Oedipus Complex’ by Frank O’Connor
65. ‘A Piece Of News’ by Eudora Welty
66. ‘Smother’ by Joyce Carol Oates
67. ‘The Other Woman’ by Sherwood Anderson
68. ‘The Brown Chest’ by John Updike
69. ‘The Emerald Light In The Air’ by Donald Antrim
70. ‘Where The Door Is Always Open And The Welcome Mat Is Out’ by Patricia Highsmith
71. ‘Action Will Be Taken’ by Heinrich Boll
72. ‘The Two Kings And The Two Labyrinths’ by Jorge Luis Borges
73. ‘Aurora’ by Junot Díaz
74. ‘Ligeia’ by Edgar Allan Poe
75. ‘The Altar Of The Dead’ by Henry James
76. ‘Winky’ by George Saunders
77. ‘Images’ by Alice Munro
78. ‘City Visit’ by Adam Haslett
79. ‘Thanks For The Ride’ by Alice Munro
80. ‘The Lotus’ by Jean Rhys
81. ‘Playing With Dynamite’ by John Updike
82. ‘A Family Man’ by V.S. Pritchett
83. ‘The Last Night Of The World’ by Ray Bradbury
84. ‘He Also Loved’ by Claude McKay
85. ‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
86. ‘A Piece Of String’ by Guy de Maupassant
87. ‘The Cousins’ by Joyce Carol Oates
88. ‘August 25, 1983’ by Jorge Luis Borges
89. ‘Legal Aid’ by Frank O’Connor
90. ‘A Case Of Identity’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
91. ‘An Ounce Of Cure’ by Alice Munro
92. ‘The Furnished Room’ by O. Henry
93. ‘The End Of FIRPO In The World’ by George Saunders
94. ‘Stitches’ by Antonya Nelson
95. ‘Communist’ by Richard Ford
96. ‘Malta Sheffer’ by Nelson Eubanks
97. ‘Transients In Arcadia’ by O. Henry
98. ‘On The Gull’s Road’ by Willa Cather
99. ‘The Skylight Room’ by O. Henry
100. ‘Most Die Young’ by Camille Bordas
101. ‘A Subject Of Childhood’ by Grace Paley
102. ‘Coming Close To Donna’ by Barry Hannah
103. ‘The Wind-Up Bird And Tuesday’s Women’ by Haruki Murakami
104. ‘Son Of The Wolfman’ by Michael Chabon
105. ‘The Harvest’ by Amy Hempel
106. ‘Rapture Of The Deep’ by Amy Hempel
107. ‘Mauricio (‘The Eye’) Silva’ by Roberto Bolaño
108. ‘The Aleph’ by Jorge Luis Borges
109. ‘Revenge Of The Lawn’ by Richard Brautigan
110. ‘The Peasant Marey’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
111. ‘A Short Walk From The Station’ by John O’Hara
112. ‘Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid
113. ‘The Man On The Threshold’ by Jorge Luis Borges
114. ‘Closing Time’ by Neil Gaiman
115. ‘A Resumed Identity’ by Ambrose Bierce
116. ‘St. John’s Eve’ by Nikolai Gogol
117. ‘Man From The South’ by Roald Dahl
118. ‘Christmas Freud’ by David Rakoff
119. ‘The Mystery Of The Spanish Chest’ by Agatha Christie
120. ‘The Oracle Of The Dog’ by G.K. Chesterton
121. ‘Dabchick’ by Haruki Murakami
122. ‘Other Factors’ by Mary Gaitskill
123. ‘The Blind Man’ by D.H. Lawrence
124. ‘How To Talk To Girls At Parties’ by Neil Gaiman
125. ‘Permission To Enter’ by Zadie Smith
126. ‘An Honest Thief’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
127. ‘How’ by Roxane Gay
128. ‘Teller’s Ticket’ by Robert Flanagan
129. ‘Some Terpsichore’ by Elizabeth McCracken
130. ‘The Prophetic Pictures’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
131. ‘Prodigal’ by Laura D. Nichols
132. ‘Tom-Rock Through The Eels’ by Amy Hempel
133. ‘The Lady’s Maid’ by Katherine Mansfield
134. ‘Days Of 1978’ by Roberto Bolaño
135. ‘Disguised’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
136. ‘The Lovely Troubled Daughters Of Our Old Crowd’ by John Updike
137. ‘Gesturing’ by John Updike
138. ‘Wingless’ by Jamaica Kincaid
139. ‘Henri Simon Leprince’ by Roberto Bolaño
140. ‘The Terror’ by Guy de Maupassant
141. ‘The Circular Ruins’ by Jorge Luis Borges
142. ‘One Summer Night’ by Ambrose Bierce
143. ‘Vine On A House’ by Ambrose Bierce
144. ‘Quitters, Inc.’ by Stephen King
145. ‘There Was Once’ by Margaret Atwood
146. ‘Until The Girl Died’ by Anne Enright
147. ‘The Sunday After Christmas’ by Mavis Gallant
148. ‘Through The Tunnel’ by Doris Lessing
149. ‘The Letter From Home’ by Jamaica Kincaid
150. ‘It Was Romance’ by Miranda July
151. ‘In The Night’ by Jamaica Kincaid
152. ‘The Drill’ by Breena Clarke
153. ‘And/Or’ by Sterling Brown
154. ‘Hunting The Deceitful Turkey’ by Mark Twain
155. ‘The Jockey’ by Carson McCullers
156. ‘Little Man’ by Michael Cunningham
157. ‘Republica Y Grau’ by Daniel Alarcon
158. ‘The Masculine Principle’ by Frank O’Connor
159. ‘The Romance Of A Busy Broker’ by O. Henry
160. ‘Regret’ by Kate Chopin
161. ‘A Novel In Nine Letters’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
162. ‘The Crocodile’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
163. ‘One Officer, One Man’ by Ambrose Bierce
164. ‘Escape From New York’ by Zadie Smith
165. ‘Rest Stop’ by Stephen King
166. ‘Misery’ by Anton Chekhov
167. ‘At Long Last’ by Jamaica Kincaid
168. ‘Letters From The Samantha’ by Mark Helprin
169. ‘Manikin’ by Leonard Michaels
170. ‘The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals’ by John Updike
171. ‘To Those Of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out Of O’Hare’ by Amy Hempel
172. ‘The Duchess And The Jeweller’ by Virginia Woolf
173. ‘Graven Image’ by John O’Hara
174. ‘And Lead Us Not Into Penn Station’ by Amy Hempel
175. ‘Midnight And I’m Not Famous Yet’ by Barry Hannah
176. ‘North Coast’ by Thomas McGuane
177. ‘Even Greenland’ by Barry Hannah
178. ‘Good Boys Deserve Favors’ by Neil Gaiman
179. ‘The Stolen Body’ by H.G. Wells
180. ‘Soldiers’ by Ellease Southerland
181. ‘At The Animal Shelter’ by Amy Hempel
182. ‘Murder’ by Amy Hempel
183. ‘Love Song, For A Moog Synthesizer’ by John Updike
184. ‘Where You’ll Find Me’ by Ann Beattie
185. ‘The Angel Of The Bridge’ by John Cheever
186. ‘Nobody’s Story’ by Charles Dickens
187. ‘A Different Kind Of Imperfection’ by Thomas Beller
188. ‘The Wait’ by Jorge Luis Borges
189. ‘Good People’ by David Foster Wallace
190. ‘Game Plan’ by Don DeLillo
191. ‘Two Men Arrive In A Village’ by Zadie Smith
192. ‘Moonlit Landscape With Bridge’ by Zadie Smith
193. ‘Bobok’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
194. ‘Meet The President!’ by Zadie Smith
195. ‘A Change Of Treatment’ by W.W. Jacobs
196. ‘Good Intentions’ by Etgar Keret
197. ‘Incarnations Of Burning Children’ by David Foster Wallace
198. ‘The Beggarwoman Of Vocarno’ by Heinrich von Kleist
199. ‘The Boarded Window’ by Ambrose Bierce
200. ‘A Baby Tramp’ by Ambrose Bierce
201. ‘The White Maniac – A Doctor’s Tale’ by Mary Fortune
202. ‘Trek’ by Barry Hannah
203. ‘Cowardice’ by Abdeslam Boulaich
204. ‘Christmas By Injunction’ by O. Henry
205. ‘The Errors Of Santa Claus’ by Stephen Leacock
206. ‘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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