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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April 2023 favorites

April 2023

The April stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Intertextuality’ by Mary Gordon
  2. ‘Leopard’ by Wells Tower
  3. ‘The Coast Of Leitrim’ by Kevin Barry
  4. ‘The Ship Ahoy’ by Ursula K. Le Guin
  5. ‘Cat In The Rain’ by Ernest Hemingway
  6. ‘Mother Savage’ by Guy de Maupassant
  7. ‘Sex Scenes From A Chain Book Store’ by Aryn Kyle
  8. ‘Flights’ by Alice Adams
  9. ‘A Sister’s Confession’ by Guy de Maupassant
  10. ‘The Lying Bee’ by John Henrik Clarke
  11. ‘A Country Wedding’ by Laurie Colwin
  12. ‘Are You In Love?’ by Alice Adams
  13. ‘The Balloon’ by Donald Barthelme
  14. ‘Beautiful Girl’ by Alice Adams
  15. ‘Lifeguard’ by John Updike
  16. ‘Edna In Rain’ by Marie-Helene Bertino
  17. ‘The Last Married Man’ by Alice Adams
  18. ‘The Last Lovely City’ by Alice Adams
  19. ‘The Day Before The Revolution’ by Ursula K. Le Guin
  20. ‘A Domestic Dilemma’ by Carson McCullers
  21. ‘The Great Hug’ by Donald Barthelme
  22. ‘Son Of Friedman’ by Emma Cline
  23. ‘The Presentation On Egypt’ by Camille Bordas
  24. ‘Heart Of Hearts’ by Emily Temple
  25. ‘Comma’ by Hilary Mantel
  26. ‘At The Zoo’ by Caitlin Horrocks
  27. ‘Rain, Rain, Go Away’ by Isaac Asimov
  28. ‘Tapioca Surprise’ by William Goyen
  29. ‘The Company Is Not Responsible’ by Mary McCarthy
  30. ‘Ex Parte’ by Ring Lardner

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March 2023 favorites

March 2023

The March stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Past Perfect, The Past Continuous, The Simple Past’ by Claire Vaye Watkins
  2. ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  3. ‘Sliding’ by Leslie Norris
  4. ‘Different People’ by Clare Sestanovich
  5. ‘A Choice Of Butchers’ by William Trevor
  6. ‘Rondine Al Nido’ by Claire Vaye Watkins
  7. ‘The Stain’ by Tessa Hadley
  8. ‘Sarah’ by Mary Lavin
  9. ‘Matrilineal’ by Tessa Hadley
  10. ‘Bad Boy’ by Kristen Roupenian
  11. ‘The Widow’s Son’ by Mary Lavin
  12. ‘The Piano Teacher’s Pupil’ by William Trevor
  13. ‘Wife Wooing’ by John Updike
  14. ‘In The Middle Of The Fields’ by Mary Lavin
  15. ‘The Adulterous Woman’ by Albert Camus
  16. ‘Coda’ by Tessa Hadley
  17. ‘Encounters With Unexpected Animals’ by Bret Anthony Johnston
  18. ‘Brother Boniface’ by Mary Lavin
  19. ‘The Bunty Club’ by Tessa Hadley
  20. ‘Happiness’ by Mary Lavin
  21. ‘The Ormulu Clock’ by Muriel Spark
  22. ‘An Upheaval’ by Anton Chekhov
  23. ‘The Itch’ by Don DeLillo
  24. ‘Ceil’ by Harold Brodkey
  25. ‘Look At Your Game, Girl’ by Kristen Roupenian
  26. ‘One Sun Only’ by Camille Bordas
  27. ‘After The Funeral’ by Tessa Hadley
  28. ‘The Ugliest Babies In The World’ by Vanessa Chan
  29. ‘The Night We All Had Grippe’ by Shirley Jackson
  30. ‘The Father’ by Raymond Carver
  31. ‘Head Over Knees’ by Eric Schlich

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

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January 2023 favorites

January 2023

The January stories ordered solely on my personal tastes. Continue reading

December 2022 favorites

December 2022

The December stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Read This And Tell Me What It Says’ by A. Manette Ansay
  2. ‘The Happiest I’ve Been’ by John Updike
  3. ‘A Jury Of Her Peers’ by Susan Glaspell
  4. ‘God Writes A Bad Hand’ by J.F. Powers
  5. ‘Naked Ladies’ by Antonya Nelson
  6. ‘The Champ’ by Pedro Juan Soto
  7. ‘Sybil’ by A. Manette Ansay
  8. ‘Grandma’s Wake’ by Emilio Díaz Valcárcel
  9. ‘Changes In Louise’ by Tom Drury
  10. ‘The Sculptor’s Funeral’ by Willa Cather
  11. ‘Agnes Of Iowa’ by Lorrie Moore
  12. ‘Kansas’ by Antonya Nelson
  13. ‘Camping Out’ by James Wilcox
  14. ‘Beautiful Grade’ by Lorrie Moore
  15. ‘Purification On Cristo Street’ by René Marqués
  16. ‘Spit In The Governor’s Tea’ by Shay Youngblood
  17. ‘Peyo Mercé: English Teacher’ by Abelardo Díaz Alfaro
  18. ‘Dundun’ by Denis Johnson
  19. ‘The Way Of The World’ by Willa Cather
  20. ‘One Christmas’ by Truman Capote
  21. ‘The Artichoke’ by Marilyn Krysl

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

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