March 2024 favorites

March 2024

The March stories ordered solely by my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Torch Song’ by John Cheever
  2. ‘You Never Get It Back’ by Cara Blue Adams
  3. ‘Three Women Of Chuck’s Donuts’ by Anthony Veasna So
  4. ‘The Worm In Philly’ by Sam Lipsyte
  5. ‘Brigid’ by Mary Lavin
  6. ‘Chance’ by Alice Munro
  7. ‘Departure’ by Andrew Porter
  8. ‘The Long Black Line’ by John L’Heureux
  9. ‘The Run Of Yoursef’ by Richard Ford
  10. ‘The Slip-Up’ by John McGahern
  11. ‘The Maths Tutor’ by Tessa Hadley
  12. ‘Hearts Of Oak And Bellies Of Brass’ by John McGahern
  13. ‘Take Half, Leave Half’ by Thomas McGuane
  14. ‘What Feels Like The World’ by Richard Bausch
  15. ‘Seeing Ershadi’ by Nicole Krauss
  16. ‘The Triumph Of Night’ by Edith Wharton
  17. ‘Ocracoke Island’ by Alice Adams
  18. ‘Those As Are Brothers’ by Nancy Hale
  19. ‘The Man Who Saw The Flood’ by Richard Wright
  20. ‘Envoy’ by Caleb Crain
  21. ‘Rumm Road’ by Alice Elliott Dark
  22. ‘The Glass House’ by Chris Adrian
  23. ‘A Story Without A Title’ by Anton Chekhov
  24. ‘Beach Town’ by Amy Hempel
  25. ‘The Help’ by Mary Robison
  26. ‘Korean Jesus’ by Pete Hsu
  27. ‘So Late In The Day’ by Claire Keegan
  28. ‘The Kid Nobody Could Handle’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
  29. ‘Xífù’ by K-Ming Chang
  30. ‘Miss Mary Pask’ by Edith Wharton
  31. ‘You Tell Me’ by Clare Sestanovich

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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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May 2023 favorites

May 2023

The May stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘A Strange And Sometimes Sadness’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
  2. ‘Some Of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby’ by Donald Barthelme
  3. ‘My Father’s Friends’ by William Maxwell
  4. ‘The Young Painters’ by Nicole Krauss
  5. ‘The First Day’ by Edward P. Jones
  6. ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien
  7. ‘Panther Eyes’ by Luisa Valenzuela
  8. ‘The Baby Party’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  9. ‘The War Of The Alligators’ by Horacio Quiroga
  10. ‘New York Girl’ by John Updike
  11. ‘Baster’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
  12. ‘Circus At Dawn’ by Thomas Wolfe
  13. ‘Future Cat’ by Xuan Juliana Wang
  14. ‘A Nursery Tale’ by Vladimir Nabokov
  15. ‘The Sorrows Of Gin’ by John Cheever
  16. ‘Tomorrow’ by Lu Xun
  17. ‘Apple Cake’ by Allegra Goodman
  18. ‘When We Were Happy We Had Other Names’ by Yiyun Li
  19. ‘Everything Is Far From Here’ by Cristina Henríquez
  20. ‘The Flood’ by Emile Zola
  21. ‘Now More Than Ever’ by Zadie Smith
  22. ‘Talpa’ by Juan Rulfo
  23. ‘Gideon’ by ZZ Packer
  24. ‘Alms’ by Stuart Dybek
  25. ‘They Tell Me… Now I Know’ by Shay Youngblood
  26. ‘In The West Country’ by Leslie Norris
  27. ‘The Starlet Apartments’ by Jonathan Lethem
  28. ‘The Voter’ by Chinua Achebe
  29. ‘The $30,000 Bequest’ by Mark Twain
  30. ‘The Huntress’ by Sofia Samatar
  31. ‘Two Ruminations On A Homeless Brother’ by David Means

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September 2022 favorites

September 2022

The September stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Willing’ by Lorrie Moore
  2. ‘The Man Who Knew Belle Starr’ by Richard Bausch
  3. ‘A Father-To-Be’ by Saul Bellow
  4. ‘A Vermont Tale’ by Mark Helprin
  5. ‘The Five Wounds’ by Kirstin Valdez Quade
  6. ‘Nemecia’ by Kirstin Valdez Quade
  7. ‘Where The Mountains Are’ by Bill Barich
  8. ‘Seeing Clear’ by Cara Blue Adams
  9. ‘Sugar Babies’ by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
  10. ‘The Beautiful Mountains’ by John Cheever
  11. ‘Afternoon In Linen’ by Shirley Jackson
  12. ‘Sauerkraut Soup’ by Stuart Dybek
  13. ‘Our Lady Of Peace’ by ZZ Packer
  14. ‘Sunday Lunch’ by Nancy Hale
  15. ‘Benediction’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  16. ‘With Reference To An Incident At A Bridge’ by William Maxwell
  17. ‘Along The Frontage Road’ by Michael Chabon

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

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