February 2024 favorites

February 2024

The February stories ordered solely by my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Moon In Its Flight’ by Gilbert Sorrentino
  2. ‘Night Of The Living Rez’ by Morgan Talty
  3. ‘Quenby And Ola, Swede and Carl’ by Robert Coover
  4. ‘Class Picture’ by Tobias Wolff
  5. ‘Sierra Leone’ by John McGahern
  6. ‘Flight’ by John Updike
  7. ‘An Unlucky Man’ by Samanta Schweblin
  8. ‘Leaf Season’ by John Updike
  9. ‘Today Will Be A Quiet Day’ by Amy Hempel
  10. ‘Axolotl’ by Julio Cortázar
  11. ‘Roseheath’ by John Cheever
  12. ‘Plumbing’ by John Updike
  13. ‘One-Percent Humidity’ by Michelle Lyn King
  14. ‘A Real Doll’ by A.M. Homes
  15. ‘The Blessed Man Of Boston, My Grandmother’s Thimble, And Fanning Island’ by John Updike
  16. ‘The Age Of Love’ by Mary South
  17. ‘Rebecca’ by Donald Barthelme
  18. ‘Stuff’ by Joy Williams
  19. ‘Learn A Trade’ by John Updike
  20. ‘Celia Is Back’ by Amy Hempel
  21. ‘The Rescue’ by John Updike
  22. ‘Chow!’ by Patricia Collinge
  23. ‘The Leap’ by Louise Erdrich
  24. ‘The Return’ by Elizabeth Bowen
  25. ‘The Alligators’ by John Updike
  26. ‘When Stars Collide’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
  27. ‘How I Became A Vet’ by Rivka Galchen
  28. ‘Oliver’ by Kevin Maloney
  29. ‘Embroidery’ by Ray Bradbury

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July 2023 favorites

July 2023

The July stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Interpreter Of Maladies’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  2. ‘Three People’ by William Trevor
  3. ‘Mrs. Sen’s’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  4. ‘In The Basement’ by Isaac Babel
  5. ‘The Dancing-Master’s Music’ by William Trevor
  6. ‘This Blessed House’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  7. ‘A Real Durwan’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  8. ‘Di Grasso’ by Isaac Babel
  9. ‘Miss Brill’ by Katherine Mansfield
  10. ‘The Diver’ by V.S. Pritchett
  11. ‘The Secret Of Cartwheels’ by Patricia Henley
  12. ‘Sexy’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  13. ‘The Parrot’ by Elizabeth Bowen
  14. ‘First Love’ by Isaac Babel
  15. ‘Sacred Statues’ by William Trevor
  16. ‘The Third And Final Continent’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  17. ‘The Widow’ by Isaac Babel
  18. ‘Allegiance’ by Aryn Kyle
  19. ‘How Things Were Done In Odessa’ by Isaac Babel
  20. ‘The Meeting’ by Alix Ohlin
  21. ‘Graillis’s Legacy’ by William Trevor
  22. ‘After Rain’ by William Trevor
  23. ‘Odd Jobs’ by Jonathan Escoffery
  24. ‘The Treatment Of Bibi Haldar’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  25. ‘Invisible Bird’ by Claire-Louise Bennett
  26. ‘I Am An American’ by James Alan McPherson
  27. ‘Pestilence’ by Jonathan Escoffery
  28. ‘Ten Indians’ by Ernest Hemingway
  29. ‘The Cure’ by Melissa Febos
  30. ‘The Break Up Of Ice’ by Lucie Elven
  31. ‘In Bed One Night’ by Robert Coover

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

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October 2021 favorites

October 2021

The October stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Suspicion’ by Dorothy Sayers
  2. ‘Bad Dreams’ by Tessa Hadley
  3. ‘Mrs. Charbury At Eltham’ by Max Porter
  4. ‘The Man Who Knew How’ by Dorothy Sayers
  5. ‘The Flight Of Geese’ by Leslie Norris
  6. ‘The Open Window’ by Saki
  7. ‘The Lighthouse’ by Agnes Owens
  8. ‘Pornography’ by Ian McEwan
  9. ‘De Mortuis’ by John Collier
  10. ‘The Fountain Plays’ by Dorothy Sayers
  11. ‘An Arrow O’er The House’ by Dorothy Sayers
  12. ‘Then Later, His Ghost’ by Sarah Hall
  13. ‘When The Door Closed, It Was Dark’ by Alison Moore
  14. ‘Le Miroir’ by Robert Aickman
  15. ‘Dilemma’ by Dorothy Sayers
  16. ‘August Heat’ by W.F. Harvey
  17. ‘The Demon Lover’ by Elizabeth Bowen
  18. ‘The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal’ by Daniel Defoe
  19. ‘The Mystery Of Hunter’s Lodge’ by Agatha Christie
  20. ‘A Haunted House’ by Virginia Woolf
  21. ‘The Crystal Egg’ by H.G. Wells
  22. ‘The Lamp’ by Agatha Christie
  23. ‘Click-Clack The Rattlebag’ by Neil Gaiman

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

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January 2021 favorites

January 2021

The January stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Love Object’ by Edna O’Brien
  2. ‘Dandelion’ by Lore Segal
  3. ‘The Headstrong Historian’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  4. ‘The Black Monk’ by Anton Chekhov
  5. ‘Her Table Spread’ by Elizabeth Bowen
  6. ‘Cloud, Castle, Lake’ by Vladimir Nabokov
  7. ‘Modern Girls’ by Teju Cole
  8. ‘The Bound Man’ by Ilse Aichinger
  9. ‘The Married Couple’ by Franz Kafka
  10. ‘Everything’ by Ingeborg Bachmann
  11. ‘The Sacrificial Egg’ by Chinua Achebe
  12. ‘Phantoms’ by Ivan Turgenev
  13. ‘In The Shadow Of War’ by Ben Okri
  14. ‘The Hawk’ by Liam O’Flaherty
  15. ‘Work, Death, And Sickness’ by Leo Tolstoy
  16. ‘The Hotel’ by Anne Enright
  17. ‘Aspic’ by Tatyana Tolstaya

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

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September 2015 favorites

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September 2015

The September stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Doll’s House’ by Katherine Mansfield
  2. ‘Walk In The Moon Shadows’ by Jesse Stuart
  3. ‘The Baby In The Icebox’ by James M. Cain
  4. ‘The Horse Dealer’s Daughter’ by D.H. Lawrence
  5. ‘The Rescue’ by V.S. Pritchett
  6. ‘A Complicated Nature’ by William Trevor
  7. ‘The Standard Of Living’ by Dorothy Parker
  8. ‘Children Of The Sea’ by Edwidge Danticat
  9. ‘The Provincials’ by Daniel Alarcon
  10. ‘Eatonville Anthology’ by Zora Neale Hurston
  11. ‘Birdsong’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  12. ‘The Letter Writers’ by Elizabeth Taylor
  13. ‘The There There’ by Antonya Nelson
  14. ‘Winter In Yalta’ by Antonya Nelson
  15. ‘The Bowl’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  16. ‘Funny Once’ by Antonya Nelson
  17. ‘Literally’ by Antonya Nelson
  18. ‘Death Constant Beyond Love’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  19. ‘A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud’ by Carson McCullers
  20. ‘The Jungle’ by Elizabeth Bowen
  21. ‘Quality Time’ by Richard Ford
  22. ‘The Gully’ by Russell Banks
  23. ‘Inventing Wampanoag, 1672’ by Ben Shattuck