4th Quarter 2024 favorites

4th Quarter 2024

The 4th Quarter (Oct-Dec) stories ordered solely by my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Peach Cobbler’ by Deesha Philyaw
  2. ‘The Pleasures Of Television’ by Rebecca Bernard
  3. ‘Pitch Memory’ by Ethan Canin
  4. ‘Hollywood Lanes’ by Megan Abbott
  5. ‘Former Marine’ by Russell Banks
  6. ‘Sarah Cole: A Type Of Love Story’ by Russell Banks
  7. ‘Eula’ by Deesha Philyaw
  8. ‘Rough Deeds’ by Annie Proulx
  9. ‘The Haunted And The Haunters’ by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
  10. ‘Christmas At The Cross’ by Maeve Murphy
  11. ‘The Finkelstein 5’ by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  12. ‘A Country Christmas’ by Louisa May Alcott
  13. ‘The Ascent’ by Ron Rash
  14. ‘The Dune’ by Stephen King
  15. ‘First Dark’ by Elizabeth Spencer
  16. ‘The Music School’ by John Updike
  17. ‘It’s Like A Whisper’ by Megan Abbott
  18. ‘The Adventure Of The Musgrave Ritual’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
  19. ‘Oxford Girl’ by Megan Abbott
  20. ‘The Wind In The Rose-Bush’ by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  21. ‘Footfalls’ by Wilbur Daniel Steele
  22. ‘Monster’ by Michael Czyzniejewski
  23. ‘Our Eyes Couldn’t Stop Opening’ by Megan Abbott
  24. ‘The Wrong Man’ by Nella Larsen
  25. ‘We’ by Mary Grimm
  26. ‘Freedom’ by Nella Larsen
  27. ‘The Fog Horn’ by Ray Bradbury
  28. ‘The Wrong Shape’ by G.K. Chesterton
  29. ‘Today We Hit’ by Megan Abbott

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

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.

October 2022 favorites

October 2022

The October stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘End Of The World’ by Dean Doner
  2. ‘The Mud Below’ by Annie Proulx
  3. ‘Home’ by Jayne Anne Phillips
  4. ‘Indian Burial’ by Dean Doner
  5. ‘The Paper Menagerie’ by Ken Liu
  6. ‘The Half-Skinned Steer’ by Annie Proulx
  7. ‘Rock Springs’ by Richard Ford
  8. ‘Hollow’ by Breece D’J Pancake
  9. ‘Close Enough’ by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
  10. ‘Before Crowned Heads’ by Dean Doner
  11. ‘Job History’ by Annie Proulx
  12. ‘The State’ by Tommy Orange
  13. ‘The Boys’ by Ethan Coen
  14. ‘A Death In The Desert’ by Willa Cather
  15. ‘Soldier’s Home’ by Ernest Hemingway
  16. ‘Different Shorelines’ by S.E. Hinton
  17. ‘Happy’ by Jayne Anne Phillips

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

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.

February 2018 favorites

February 2018

The February stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ by Annie Proulx
  2. ‘Daisy’s Valentine’ by Mary Gaitskill
  3. ‘Clara’ by Roberto Bolaño
  4. ‘The Wife’ by Jennifer Jordan
  5. ‘Counting Breaths’ by Rosemarie Robotham
  6. ‘Last Night’ by James Salter
  7. ‘Cafeteria’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  8. ‘- And The Moon Be Still As Bright’ by Ray Bradbury
  9. ‘Fedora’ by Kate Chopin
  10. ‘The Lynching Of Jube Benson’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar
  11. ‘Solo On The Drums’ by Ann Petry
  12. ‘The Stout Gentleman’ by Washington Irving
  13. ‘The Man Who Disliked Cats’ by P.G. Wodehouse
  14. ‘Water Child’ by Edwidge Danticat
  15. ‘The Lost Decade’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  16. ‘Living’ by Grace Paley
  17. ‘Between The Halves’ by John O’Hara

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

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.

August 2017 favorites

August 2017

The August stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ by Haruki Murakami
  2. ‘The Man Of The House’ by Frank O’Connor
  3. ‘Chicxulub’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
  4. ‘The Second Bakery Attack’ by Haruki Murakami
  5. ‘The Man On The Stairs’ by Miranda July
  6. ‘First Confession’ by Frank O’Connor
  7. ‘Sault Ste. Marie’ by David Means
  8. ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’ by Annie Proulx
  9. ‘The Year Of Spaghetti’ by Haruki Murakami
  10. ‘My Oedipus Complex’ by Frank O’Connor
  11. ‘August 25, 1983’ by Jorge Luis Borges
  12. ‘A Piece Of News’ by Eudora Welty
  13. ‘Legal Aid’ by Frank O’Connor
  14. ‘Dabchick’ by Haruki Murakami
  15. ‘Other Factors’ by Mary Gaitskill
  16. ‘Prodigal’ by Laura D. Nichols
  17. ‘The Masculine Principle’ by Frank O’Connor
  18. ‘The Prophetic Pictures’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  19. ‘The Stolen Body’ by H.G. Wells

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

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.