Tag: James Baldwin

November 2020 favorites

November 2020


The November stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.



  1. ‘Love Letter’ by George Saunders

  2. ‘A Temporary Matter’ by Jhumpa Lahiri

  3. ‘The Lie’ by Maeve Brennan

  4. ‘The Dead’ by Joyce Carol Oates

  5. ‘The Lady With The Pet Dog’ by Joyce Carol Oates

  6. ‘The Clever One’ by Maeve Brennan

  7. ‘Going To Meet The Man’ by James Baldwin

  8. ‘Horses In The Night’ by Margaret Laurence

  9. ‘The Turn Of The Screw’ by Joyce Carol Oates

  10. ‘The Old Man Of The Sea’ by Maeve Brennan

  11. ‘The Metamorphosis’ by Joyce Carol Oates

  12. ‘The Devil In Us’ by Maeve Brennan

  13. ‘The Barrel Of Rumors’ by Maeve Brennan

  14. ‘Fern’ by Jean Toomer

  15. ‘John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne

  16. ‘The Boy Who Painted Christ Black’ by John Henrik Clarke

  17. ‘Mouses’ by Thom Jones

  18. ‘Housewife’ by Amy Hempel

  19. ‘Where I Lived, And What I Lived For’ by Joyce Carol Oates

  20. ‘My Brother At The Canadian Border’ by Sholeh Wolpé


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July 2018 favorites

July 2018

The July stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘So Peaceful In The Country’ by Carl Ruthven Offord
  2. ‘God Bless America’ by John Oliver Killens
  3. ‘Muttsy’ by Zora Neale Hurston
  4. ‘Sanctuary’ by Nella Larsen
  5. ‘Blood-Burning Moon’ by Jean Toomer
  6. ‘On Trains’ by James Alan McPherson
  7. ‘Landladies’ by Langston Hughes
  8. ‘Kiswana Browne’ by Gloria Naylor
  9. ‘Simple On Military Integration’ by Langston Hughes
  10. ‘Condemned House’ by Lucille Boehm
  11. ‘Simple Prays A Prayer’ by Langston Hughes
  12. ‘Feet Live Their Own Life’ by Langston Hughes
  13. ‘Steady Going Up’ by Maya Angelou
  14. ‘Exodus’ by James Baldwin
  15. ‘Mother’ by Andrea Lee
  16. ‘Long Distances’ by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  17. ‘Simple On Indian Blood’ by Langston Hughes
  18. ‘Conversation On The Corner’ by Langston Hughes
  19. ‘The Diary Of An African Nun’ by Alice Walker
  20. ‘Vacation’ by Langston Hughes

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

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October 2014 favorites

October 2014

The October stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’ by Flannery O’Connor
  2. ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find’ by Flannery O’Connor
  3. ‘The River’ by Flannery O’Connor
  4. ‘A&P’ by John Updike
  5. ‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own’ by Flannery O’Connor
  6. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
  7. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe
  8. ‘Nilda’ by Junot Diaz
  9. ‘Young Goodman Brown’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  10. ‘The Lady’s Maid’s Bell’ by Edith Wharton
  11. ‘Luella Miller’ by Mary Wilkins Freeman
  12. ‘The Outcasts Of Poker Flat’ by Bret Harte
  13. ‘The Sutton Place Story’ by John Cheever
  14. ‘Premium Harmony’ by Stephen King
  15. ‘Paper Losses’ by Lorrie Moore
  16. ‘This Morning, This Evening, So Soon’ by James Baldwin
  17. ‘Three Players Of A Summer Game’ by Tennessee Williams
  18. ‘A Stroke Of Good Fortune’ by Flannery O’Connor
  19. ‘The Body Snatcher’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
  20. ‘Awake’ by Tobias Wolff
  21. ‘In Greenwich, There Are Many Gravelled Walks’ by Hortense Calisher
  22. ‘A Dark Brown Dog’ by Stephen Crane
  23. ‘Nothing Ever Breaks Except The Heart’ by Kay Boyle
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June 2014 favorites

June 2014

The June stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Venus, Cupid, Folly And Time’ by Peter Taylor
  2. ‘Blackberry Winter’ by Robert Penn Warren
  3. ‘Babylon Revisited’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  4. ‘Upon The Sweeping Flood’ by Joyce Carol Oates
  5. ‘Good Country People’ by Flannery O’Connor
  6. ‘My Old Man’ by Ernest Hemingway
  7. ‘I’m A Fool’ by Sherwood Anderson
  8. ‘Sonny’s Blues’ by James Baldwin
  9. ‘Only The Dead Know Brooklyn’ by Thomas Wolfe
  10. ‘Double Birthday’ by Willa Cather
  11. ‘The View From The Balcony’ by Wallace Stegner
  12. ‘The Magic Barrel’ by Bernard Malamud
  13. ‘No Place For You, My Love’ by Eudora Welty
  14. ‘The Schreuderspitze’ by Mark Helprin
  15. ‘The Hartleys’ by John Cheever
  16. ‘O City Of Broken Dreams’ by John Cheever
  17. ‘A Day In The Open’ by Jane Bowles
  18. ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson
  19. ‘In The Zoo’ by Jean Stafford
  20. ‘The Lost Phoebe’ by Theodore Dreiser
  21. ‘Welcome To The Monkey House’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
  22. ‘How Beautiful With Shoes’ by Wilbur Daniel Steele
  23. ‘The Little Wife’ by William March
  24. ‘A Distant Episode’ by Paul Bowles
  25. ‘The Faithful Wife’ by Morley Callaghan
  26. ‘The Golden Honeymoon’ by Ring Lardner
  27. ‘Resurrection Of A Life’ by William Saroyan
  28. ‘The State Of Grace’ by Harold Brodkey
  29. ‘A Telephone Call’ by Dorothy Parker
  30. ‘The Survivors’ by Elsie Singmaster
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