2020 favorites

2020 Favorites

Seven years in and going strong on the SSMT website.

It was a difficult 2020 all around. And as life got infinitely more stressful, the notion of having time to sit back and read a short story seemed comical.

But, I would argue, taking time to read a short story (at least every so often) becomes even more important during times of adversity. Art can lift us out of our own anxiety, away from our own grief, and give us someone else’s perspective. Getting out of your own head, even only temporarily, was essential self-care in 2020.

So in keeping with SSMT tradition, here is the annual list ranking the stories highlighted this year on the site, sorted in order of my own enjoyment.

And look for a new spin on things in 2021 here. Every week, we’ll be highlighting stories from a different country. After leaning overwhelmingly American for seven years, it seemed like it was well past time to expand my reading horizons. Can’t hurt to change things up for 2021.

So look forward to that, and have a happy new year!

1. ‘Wenlock Edge’ by Alice Munro
2. ‘The Green Banana’ by J.F. Powers
3. ‘Love Letter’ by George Saunders
4. ‘A Jonquil For Mary Penn’ by Wendell Berry
5. ‘Family Furnishings’ by Alice Munro
6. ‘A Bird In The House’ by Margaret Laurence
7. ‘Emergency’ by Denis Johnson
8. ‘The Most Girl Part Of You’ by Amy Hempel
9. ‘The Proxy Marriage’ by Maile Meloy
10. ‘A Temporary Matter’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
11. ‘Corrie’ by Alice Munro
12. ‘Heaven’ by Mary Gaitskill
13. ‘The Lie’ by Maeve Brennan
14. ‘Like It Or Not’ by Deborah Eisenberg
15. ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
16. ‘Mirrorball’ by Mary Gaitskill
17. ‘Accident Brief’ by Karen Russell
18. ‘Across The Lake’ by Deborah Eisenberg
19. ‘Notes From A Lady At A Dinner Party’ by Bernard Malamud
20. ‘Witness For The Prosecution’ by Agatha Christie
21. ‘An Error In Chemistry’ by William Faulkner
22. ‘The Adventure Of The Norwood Builder’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
23. ‘The Little Men’ by Megan Abbott
24. ‘The Mask Of The Bear’ by Margaret Laurence
25. ‘To Set Our House In Order’ by Margaret Laurence
26. ‘The Unknown Masterpiece’ by Honoré de Balzac
27. ‘Wakefield’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
28. ‘The Rug’ by Edna O’Brien
29. ‘Mrs. Reinhardt’ by Edna O’Brien
30. ‘The Dead’ by Joyce Carol Oates
31. ‘The Lady With The Pet Dog’ by Joyce Carol Oates
32. ‘Gravel’ by Alice Munro
33. ‘A Half-Pint Of Old Darling’ by Wendell Berry
34. ‘Number Ten’ by Edna O’Brien
35. ‘Debt Of Honor’ by V.S. Pritchett
36. ‘The Adventure Of The Dancing Men’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
37. ‘The First Seven Years’ by Bernard Malamud
38. ‘Mademoiselle Pearl’ by Guy de Maupassant
39. ‘A Priest In The Family’ by Colm Tóibín
40. ‘Godliness’ by Sherwood Anderson
41. ‘Mother’ by Sherwood Anderson
42. ‘Work’ by Denis Johnson
43. ‘A Woman On The Roof’ by Doris Lessing
44. ‘All The Way In Flagstaff, Arizona’ by Richard Bausch
45. ‘Greenleaf’ by Flannery O’Connor
46. ‘Lunch At The Loyola Arms’ by Stuart Dybek
47. ‘The Metal Bowl’ by Miranda July
48. ‘The Death Of A Government Clerk’ by Anton Chekhov
49. ‘Hands’ by Sherwood Anderson
50. ‘Paper Pills’ by Sherwood Anderson
51. ‘The Beach Boy’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
52. ‘The Loons’ by Margaret Laurence
53. ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’ by ZZ Packer
54. ‘The Half-Husky’ by Margaret Laurence
55. ‘The Sphinx’ by Edgar Allan Poe
56. ‘Snow’ by Ann Beattie
57. ‘A Dead Woman’s Secrets’ by Guy de Maupassant
58. ‘The Woman Who Came At Six O’Clock’ by Gabriel García Márquez
59. ‘First Love, Last Rites’ by Ian McEwan
60. ‘Mrs. Fortescue’ by Doris Lessing
61. ‘The Connor Girls’ by Edna O’Brien
62. ‘Home For Christmas’ by Carson McCullers
63. ‘Dismemberment’ by Wendell Berry
64. ‘Her Letters’ by Kate Chopin
65. ‘The Birth-Mark’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
66. ‘Two Men’ by Denis Johnson
67. ‘Nobody Knows’ by Sherwood Anderson
68. ‘The Sound Of The Singing’ by Margaret Laurence
69. ‘Comfort’ by Mary Gaitskill
70. ‘To Room Nineteen’ by Doris Lessing
71. ‘The Wheelbarrow’ by V.S. Pritchett
72. ‘England Versus England’ by Doris Lessing
73. ‘Hunted Down’ by Charles Dickens
74. ‘The Clever One’ by Maeve Brennan
75. ‘The Profile’ by Willa Cather
76. ‘The Mourners’ by Bernard Malamud
77. ‘Going To Meet The Man’ by James Baldwin
78. ‘Cattle Haul’ by Jesmyn Ward
79. ‘Robert E. Lee Is Dead’ by Danielle Evans
80. ‘Brownies’ by ZZ Packer
81. ‘Horses In The Night’ by Margaret Laurence
82. ‘On The Divide’ by Willa Cather
83. ‘The Garden Lodge’ by Willa Cather
84. ‘My Son The Murderer’ by Bernard Malamud
85. ‘Angel Levine’ by Bernard Malamud
86. ‘Visitor’ by Bryan Washington
87. ‘The Pram’ by Roddy Doyle
88. ‘A Room Forever’ by Breece D’J Pancake
89. ‘Stone Mattress’ by Margaret Atwood
90. ‘The Weirdos’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
91. ‘The Turn Of The Screw’ by Joyce Carol Oates
92. ‘The Old Man Of The Sea’ by Maeve Brennan
93. ‘Mark Of Satan’ by Joyce Carol Oates
94. ‘At The Seminary’ by Joyce Carol Oates
95. ‘Twin Beds In Rome’ by John Updike
96. ‘Turgor’ by Mary Gaitskill
97. ‘The Tree Of Knowledge’ by Henry James
98. ‘The Pelican’ by Edith Wharton
99. ‘The Interlopers’ by Saki
100. ‘Flesh And The Mirror’ by Angela Carter
101. ‘The Flaw In The Design’ by Deborah Eisenberg
102. ‘Fatality’ by Richard Bausch
103. ‘A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings’ by Gabriel García Márquez
104. ‘Seven’ by Edwidge Danticat
105. ‘A Winter Courtship’ by Sarah Orne Jewett
106. ‘My Friend Bingham’ by Henry James
107. ‘Some Get Back’ by Robert J. Williams
108. ‘The Creature’ by Edna O’Brien
109. ‘Funny Little Snake’ by Tessa Hadley
110. ‘The Rise Of Capitalism’ by Donald Barthelme
111. ‘You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead’ by Flannery O’Connor
112. ‘The Children’ by Andrea Lee
113. ‘One Of These Days’ by Gabriel García Márquez
114. ‘The Girl On The Plane’ by Mary Gaitskill
115. ‘Eyes Of A Blue Dog’ by Gabriel García Márquez
116. ‘The Invalid, Or The Bedridden’ by Patricia Highsmith
117. ‘Connection’ by Mary Gaitskill
118. ‘The Philosopher’ by Sherwood Anderson
119. ‘A Man Of Ideas’ by Sherwood Anderson
120. ‘Dirty Deceivers’ by Chester Himes
121. ‘Making It Home’ by Wendell Berry
122. ‘The Sock’ by Lydia Davis
123. ‘A Golden Slipper’ by Willa Cather
124. ‘The Marvellous Girl’ by V.S. Pritchett
125. ‘Second Best’ by D.H. Lawrence
126. ‘The Stick Up’ by John Oliver Killens
127. ‘Psychopolis’ by Ian McEwan
128. ‘Father Abe’ by James McBride
129. ‘East Side: North Africa’ by Jane Bowles
130. ‘Trying To Be’ by Mary Gaitskill
131. ‘The Fishing-Boat Picture’ by Alan Sillitoe
132. ‘Mother’ by Grace Paley
133. ‘Fly Away, Breath’ by Wendell Berry
134. ‘Goodbye, Pops’ by Joe Gores
135. ‘Nanette: An Aside’ by Willa Cather
136. ‘The Lightning-Rod Man’ by Herman Melville
137. ‘Wild Frank’s Return’ by Walt Whitman
138. ‘Beverly Home’ by Denis Johnson
139. ‘The Female Novelist’ by Patricia Highsmith
140. ‘The Metamorphosis’ by Joyce Carol Oates
141. ‘The Devil In Us’ by Maeve Brennan
142. ‘The Barrel Of Rumors’ by Maeve Brennan
143. ‘Fern’ by Jean Toomer
144. ‘The Coquette’ by Patricia Highsmith
145. ‘Irina’ by Mavis Gallant
146. ‘The Lily-White Boys’ by William Maxwell
147. ‘An Affair, Edited’ by Mary Gaitskill
148. ‘The Under Graham Railroad Box Car Set’ by James McBride
149. ‘The Stone’ by Louise Erdrich
150. ‘The Sunday Following Mother’s Day’ by Edward P. Jones
151. ‘In The Hours Of Darkness’ by Edna O’Brien
152. ‘A Talking Cure’ by Justin Taylor
153. ‘My Sister’s Marriage’ by Cynthia Marshall Rich
154. ‘The Absence Of Emily’ by Jack Ritchie
155. ‘The Adventure Of The German Student’ by Washington Irving
156. ‘Paranoia’ by Shirley Jackson
157. ‘Twilight Of The Superheroes’ by Deborah Eisenberg
158. ‘The Fall’ by V.S. Pritchett
159. ‘The Two Davises And The Rug’ by Lydia Davis
160. ‘Aren’t You Happy For Me?’ by Richard Bausch
161. ‘I Live On Your Visits’ by Dorothy Parker
162. ‘Reading Lessons’ by Edwidge Danticat
163. ‘Northeast Regional’ by Emma Cline
164. ‘How I Finally Lost My Heart’ by Doris Lessing
165. ‘The Fly In The Ointment’ by V.S. Pritchett
166. ‘On Saturday Afternoon’ by Alan Sillitoe
167. ‘The Case Of The Missing Will’ by Agatha Christie
168. ‘Simmering’ by Margaret Atwood
169. ‘Out On Bail’ by Denis Johnson
170. ‘The Other Man’ by Denis Johnson
171. ‘My Flamboyant Grandson’ by George Saunders
172. ‘Dragged Fighting From His Tomb’ by Barry Hannah
173. ‘The Egg Race’ by John Updike
174. ‘The Namesake’ by Willa Cather
175. ‘Cortés And Montezuma’ by Donald Barthelme
176. ‘The Haunted Mind’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
177. ‘Life After High School’ by Joyce Carol Oates
178. ‘The Last Voyage Of The Ghost Ship’ by Gabriel García Márquez
179. ‘The Chocolate Box’ by Agatha Christie
180. ‘The Fascinating Problem Of Uncle Meleager’s Will’ by Dorothy Sayers
181. ‘The Parker Shotgun’ by Sue Grafton
182. ‘The Adventure Of The Cheap Flat’ by Agatha Christie
183. ‘Wedlock’ by Richard Bausch
184. ‘Show Don’t Tell’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
185. ‘Nobody In Hollywood’ by Richard Bausch
186. ‘The Hand’ by Patricia Highsmith
187. ‘The Fully Licensed Whore, Or, The Wife’ by Patricia Highsmith
188. ‘The Mirror’ by Haruki Murakami
189. ‘Asleep In Armageddon’ by Ray Bradbury
190. ‘The Pocketbook Game’ by Alice Childress
191. ‘The Dancer’ by Patricia Highsmith
192. ‘Miss Marple Tells A Story’ by Agatha Christie
193. ‘The Veiled Lady’ by Agatha Christie
194. ‘Billy’s Girl’ by Gordon Jackson
195. ‘Quiet Please’ by Aimee Bender
196. ‘Nairobi’ by Joyce Carol Oates
197. ‘The Hit Man’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
198. ‘Heart Attack’ by Max Apple
199. ‘Cooking Lesson’ by Rosario Castellanos
200. ‘Coming Soon’ by Steven Millhauser
201. ‘Exteriors’ by Kathleen Collins
202. ‘Prue’ by Alice Munro
203. ‘Company For Gertrude’ by P.G. Wodehouse
204. ‘Steady Hands In Seattle General’ by Denis Johnson
205. ‘The Yo-Yo’ by P.D. James
206. ‘The Middle-Class Housewife’ by Patricia Highsmith
207. ‘The Breeder’ by Patricia Highsmith
208. ‘Temptation’ by Clarice Lispector
209. ‘Ordinary Nudes’ by Stuart Dybek
210. ‘Neighbors’ by Anthony Tognazzini
211. ‘The Canebrake’ by Mohammed Mrabet
212. ‘John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
213. ‘The Boy Who Painted Christ Black’ by John Henrik Clarke
214. ‘The Striding Place’ by Gertrude Atherton
215. ‘Is He Living Or Is He Dead?’ by Mark Twain
216. ‘The Maypole Of Merry-Mount’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
217. ‘Legend Of The Two Discreet Statues’ by Washington Irving
218. ‘The Third Tower’ by Deborah Eisenberg
219. ‘Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest’ by Sherman Alexie
220. ‘La Sainte-Vierge’ by Daphne du Maurier
221. ‘The Genuine Tabard’ by E.C. Bentley
222. ‘The Queer Feet’ by G.K. Chesterton
223. ‘Television’ by Lydia Davis
224. ‘Blue Girl’ by Elizabeth Crane
225. ‘The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid’ by H.G. Wells
226. ‘The Bold Dragoon, Or The Adventure Of My Grandfather’ by Washington Irving
227. ‘Mouses’ by Thom Jones
228. ‘Housewife’ by Amy Hempel
229. ‘Where I Lived, And What I Lived For’ by Joyce Carol Oates
230. ‘The Annex’ by Amy Hempel
231. ‘Odd Behavior’ by Lydia Davis
232. ‘The Warmth Of Things’ by Nélida Piñón
233. ‘Times’ by Ann Beattie
234. ‘The Afterlife’ by Jonathan Lethem
235. ‘Cranberry Relish’ by Katherine Heiny
236. ‘The Richer, The Poorer’ by Dorothy West
237. ‘The Doctor And The Rabbi’ by Aimee Bender
238. ‘The Hanging Of The Schoolmarm’ by Robert Coover
239. ‘My Brother At The Canadian Border’ by Sholeh Wolpé
240. ‘The Coin Of Dionysius’ by Ernest Bramah

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

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