2024 favorites

2024 Favorites

Hello, I hope you are having a nice holiday season. This is a new year I wasn’t expecting to celebrate on SSMT. I fully intended to stop the site on the 10^th anniversary this past June.

But, quite obviously, I couldn’t stay away.

I pulled back on the frequency so that we’re only posting once a week – every Monday – with some special exceptions. Not nearly as many short stories as I was reading before, but still a nice selection and a nice way to keep the website community here going without monopolizing too much of my decreasingly available time.

I’m excited to head into another new year of stories. There is neverending supply of great work from long ago to continue digging through, but I’m also very energized and inspired by where the form is going. There are a ton of new writers out there doing great things, pushing boundaries of what short stories can be. I’m not sure I would have said that three or four years ago.

OK, on to a wonderful 2025, and, as is tradition at SSMT, here is a list of all the stories featured on the site during the past year – in order only by how much I liked them.

1. ‘Death By Landscape’ by Margaret Atwood
2. ‘The Moon In Its Flight’ by Gilbert Sorrentino
3. ‘Torch Song’ by John Cheever
4. ‘You Never Get It Back’ by Cara Blue Adams
5. ‘Peach Cobbler’ by Deesha Philyaw
6. ‘Night Of The Living Rez’ by Morgan Talty
7. ‘The Sea Latch’ by Cara Blue Adams
8. ‘In The Cart’ by Anton Chekhov
9. ‘Sex Appeal’ by Lucia Berlin
10. ‘The Pleasures Of Television’ by Rebecca Bernard
11. ‘Pitch Memory’ by Ethan Canin
12. ‘Quenby And Ola, Swede and Carl’ by Robert Coover
13. ‘Class Picture’ by Tobias Wolff
14. ‘Barn Burning’ by Haruki Murakami
15. ‘Three Women Of Chuck’s Donuts’ by Anthony Veasna So
16. ‘Hole’ by Andrew Porter
17. ‘Martha, Martha’ by Zadie Smith
18. ‘Boys And Girls Like You And Me’ by Aryn Kyle
19. ‘Brigid’ by Mary Lavin
20. ‘The Run Of Yourself’ by Richard Ford
21. ‘Sarah Cole: A Type Of Love Story’ by Russell Banks
22. ‘Departure’ by Andrew Porter
23. ‘Face Time’ by Lorrie Moore
24. ‘Roseheath’ by John Cheever
25. ‘City Of Churches’ by Donald Barthelme
26. ‘Sierra Leone’ by John McGahern
27. ‘Flight’ by John Updike
28. ‘The Reverse Bug’ by Lore Segal
29. ‘The Worm In Philly’ by Sam Lipsyte
30. ‘An Unlucky Man’ by Samanta Schweblin
31. ‘Leaf Season’ by John Updike
32. ‘Axolotl’ by Julio Cortázar
33. ‘The Basement Room’ by Graham Greene
34. ‘A Stick Of Green Candy’ by Jane Bowles
35. ‘This Is Salvaged’ by Vauhini Vara
36. ‘Making Friends’ by Joy Williams
37. ‘Hollywood Lanes’ by Megan Abbott
38. ‘Former Marine’ by Russell Banks
39. ‘The New Englander’ by Sherwood Anderson
40. ‘A Penny Short’ by Pete Hsu
41. ‘The Choc-Ice Woman’ by Mary Costello
42. ‘Coyotes’ by Andrew Porter
43. ‘Admirals’ by Michael Chabon
44. ‘Teenage Punk’ by Lucia Berlin
45. ‘Chance’ by Alice Munro
46. ‘Parker’s Back’ by Flannery O’Connor
47. ‘Death’ by Sherwood Anderson
48. ‘Sophistication’ by Sherwood Anderson
49. ‘Harrison Bergeron’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
50. ‘The Long Black Line’ by John L’Heureux
51. ‘The Slip-Up’ by John McGahern
52. ‘Paradise’ by Edna O’Brien
53. ‘The Swan’ by Roald Dahl
54. ‘Today Will Be A Quiet Day’ by Amy Hempel
55. ‘Fjord Of Killary’ by Kevin Barry
56. ‘Eula’ by Deesha Philyaw
57. ‘Guests’ by Mary Terrier
58. ‘Twenty Minutes’ by James Salter
59. ‘Headlights’ by Samanta Schweblin
60. ‘The Haunted And The Haunters’ by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
61. ‘Rough Deeds’ by Annie Proulx
62. ‘My Heart Is Either Broken’ by Megan Abbott
63. ‘My House’ by George Saunders
64. ‘Christmas At The Cross’ by Maeve Murphy
65. ‘The Finkelstein 5’ by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
66. ‘Witness’ by Jamel Brinkley
67. ‘In A Tub’ by Amy Hempel
68. ‘Rose’ by Guy de Maupassant
69. ‘Vandals’ by Alice Munro
70. ‘The Continuity Of Parks’ by Julio Cortázar
71. ‘The Night’s For Cryin’’ by Chester Himes
72. ‘Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People’ by Lorrie Moore
73. ‘The Disappeared’ by Andrew Porter
74. ‘The Maths Tutor’ by Tessa Hadley
75. ‘B.F. And Me’ by Lucia Berlin
76. ‘The Eclipse’ by Elizabeth Spencer
77. ‘A Wet Day’ by Mary Lavin
78. ‘Love Is Not A Pie’ by Amy Bloom
79. ‘The House Behind’ by Lydia Davis
80. ‘What It Takes To Keep A Young Girl Alive’ by Jayne Anne Phillips
81. ‘Hearts Of Oak And Bellies Of Brass’ by John McGahern
82. ‘Take Half, Leave Half’ by Thomas McGuane
83. ‘One-Percent Humidity’ by Michelle Lyn King
84. ‘A Real Doll’ by A.M. Homes
85. ‘Seeing Ershadi’ by Nicole Krauss
86. ‘Those As Are Brothers’ by Nancy Hale
87. ‘The Man Who Saw The Flood’ by Richard Wright
88. ‘Animal Behavior’ by Laurie Colwin
89. ‘Envoy’ by Caleb Crain
90. ‘You’re The Sweetest’ by LaShonda Katrice Barnett
91. ‘Late Love’ by Joyce Carol Oates
92. ‘Rules Of The Game’ by Amy Tan
93. ‘A Cruelty’ by Kevin Barry
94. ‘Donkey Gets Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched’ by Steve Almond
95. ‘A Country Christmas’ by Louisa May Alcott
96. ‘The Ascent’ by Ron Rash
97. ‘The Dune’ by Stephen King
98. ‘First Dark’ by Elizabeth Spencer
99. ‘Control Negro’ by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
100. ‘A Visit To Grandmother’ by William Melvin Kelley
101. ‘Rumm Road’ by Alice Elliott Dark
102. ‘The Glass House’ by Chris Adrian
103. ‘By The Waters Of Babylon’ by Stephen Vincent Benét
104. ‘A Thing At Work’ by George Saunders
105. ‘The Colonel’s Daughter’ by Robert Coover
106. ‘My Jockey’ by Lucia Berlin
107. ‘Bangkok’ by James Salter
108. ‘The Music School’ by John Updike
109. ‘It’s Like A Whisper’ by Megan Abbott
110. ‘The Adventure Of The Musgrave Ritual’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
111. ‘Oxford Girl’ by Megan Abbott
112. ‘The Wind In The Rose-Bush’ by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
113. ‘Ten-Year Affair’ by Erin Somers
114. ‘Footfalls’ by Wilbur Daniel Steele
115. ‘Monster’ by Michael Czyzniejewski
116. ‘An Actor Prepares’ by Donald Antrim
117. ‘I, Buffalo’ by Vauhini Vara
118. ‘The Blessed Man Of Boston, My Grandmother’s Thimble, And Fanning Island’ by John Updike
119. ‘Queer’ by Sherwood Anderson
120. ‘The Untold Lie’ by Sherwood Anderson
121. ‘Drink’ by Sherwood Anderson
122. ‘U.F.O. In Kushiro’ by Haruki Murakami
123. ‘What Feels Like The World’ by Richard Bausch
124. ‘The Triumph Of Night’ by Edith Wharton
125. ‘The Orphaned Swimming Pool’ by John Updike
126. ‘Julia’ by Ada Zhang
127. ‘Comfort’ by Jamel Brinkley
128. ‘Keats At Twenty-Four’ by Caleb Crain
129. ‘Our Eyes Couldn’t Stop Opening’ by Megan Abbott
130. ‘The Wrong Man’ by Nella Larsen
131. ‘We’ by Mary Grimm
132. ‘Freedom’ by Nella Larsen
133. ‘Ruthy And Edie’ by Grace Paley
134. ‘In A Different Light’ by Elizabeth Taylor
135. ‘Departure’ by Sherwood Anderson
136. ‘An Awakening’ by Sherwood Anderson
137. ‘One Night In New Jersey’ by Chester Himes
138. ‘Stuff’ by Joy Williams
139. ‘The Mom Of Bold Action’ by George Saunders
140. ‘The Man Who Loved Islands’ by D.H. Lawrence
141. ‘Draft Day’ by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
142. ‘Ocracoke Island’ by Alice Adams
143. ‘A Story Without A Title’ by Anton Chekhov
144. ‘Beach Town’ by Amy Hempel
145. ‘The Help’ by Mary Robison
146. ‘Korean Jesus’ by Pete Hsu
147. ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Claire Vaye Watkins
148. ‘A Sheltered Woman’ by Yiyun Li
149. ‘Plumbing’ by John Updike
150. ‘The Greatest Gift’ by Philip Van Doren Stern
151. ‘So Late In The Day’ by Claire Keegan
152. ‘The Prussian Officer’ by D.H. Lawrence
153. ‘A Dark And Winding Road’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
154. ‘Bad Behavior’ by Alexia Arthurs
155. ‘What Feminism Is’ by Louise Nealon
156. ‘Under The Boardwalk’ by Jayne Anne Phillips
157. ‘The Kid Nobody Could Handle’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
158. ‘Xífù’ by K-Ming Chang
159. ‘Miss Mary Pask’ by Edith Wharton
160. ‘The Age Of Love’ by Mary South
161. ‘Rebecca’ by Donald Barthelme
162. ‘Learn A Trade’ by John Updike
163. ‘Celia Is Back’ by Amy Hempel
164. ‘You Are Not Alone’ by Vauhini Vara
165. ‘Foster’ by Bryan Washington
166. ‘Annunciation’ by Clare Sestanovich
167. ‘Alvin The Typesetter’ by Lydia Davis
168. ‘Bayonne’ by John Cheever
169. ‘William Wei’ by Amie Barrodale
170. ‘Thataway’ by Thomas McGuane
171. ‘Tickets, Please!’ by D.H. Lawrence
172. ‘The Rescue’ by John Updike
173. ‘Chow!’ by Patricia Collinge
174. ‘The Leap’ by Louise Erdrich
175. ‘The Return’ by Elizabeth Bowen
176. ‘The Alligators’ by John Updike
177. ‘When Stars Collide’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
178. ‘How I Became A Vet’ by Rivka Galchen
179. ‘You Tell Me’ by Clare Sestanovich
180. ‘Texas’ by David Gates
181. ‘Unknown Unknowns’ by Vauhini Vara
182. ‘Embroidery’ by Ray Bradbury
183. ‘It’s Not You’ by Elizabeth McCracken
184. ‘Three Popes Walk Into A Bar’ by Amy Hempel
185. ‘My Mother’s Memoirs, My Father’s Lie, And Other True Stories’ by Russell Banks
186. ‘Pool Night’ by Amy Hempel
187. ‘Oliver’ by Kevin Maloney
188. ‘Chance The Cat’ by David Means
189. ‘The Island’ by Tove Jansson
190. ‘Island’ by Gretel Ehrlich
191. ‘The Wisdom Of Eve’ by Mary Orr
192. ‘Life Without Children’ by Roddy Doyle
193. ‘Referent’ by Ray Bradbury
194. ‘The Body’s Defenses Against Itself’ by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
195. ‘An Uncomfortable Bed’ by Guy de Maupassant
196. ‘The Fog Horn’ by Ray Bradbury
197. ‘Jeeves And The Hard-Boiled Egg’ by P.G. Wodehouse
198. ‘The Wrong Shape’ by G.K. Chesterton
199. ‘Today We Hit’ by Megan Abbott
200. ‘The Ends’ by Peter Ho Davies
201. ‘The Treasure In The Forest’ by H.G. Wells
202. ‘Five Weddings’ by Kevin Maloney
203. ‘The Breaking Up Of The Winships’ by James Thurber
204. ‘What Stumped The Blue-Jays’ by Mark Twain
205. ‘Taylor Swift’ by Hugh Behm-Steinberg
206. ‘Thunderbirds: Who, Why, and How’ by Rebecca Scherm
207. ‘University Days’ by James Thurber
208. ‘An Enigmatic Nature’ by Anton Chekhov
209. ‘The New Lodger’ by Amy Hempel
210. ‘Detour’ by Évelyne Trouillot

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

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