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

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.

Advertisement

February 2023 favorites

February 2023

The February stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Dead Men’s Path’ by Chinua Achebe
  2. ‘At The Clinic’ by Sally Rooney
  3. ‘Secret Weapons’ by Julio Cortázar
  4. ‘Bliss’ by Katherine Mansfield
  5. ‘Every Tongue Shall Confess’ by ZZ Packer
  6. ‘In The Name Of Bobby’ by Julio Cortázar
  7. ‘The Cold Boy’ by Benjamin Percy
  8. ‘Ain’t That Good News’ by Brit Bennett
  9. ‘The Pace Of Youth’ by Stephen Crane
  10. ‘I Am Twenty-One’ by Mary Robison
  11. ‘The Daughters’ by Maeve Brennan
  12. ‘Ray-Ray’s Picture Box’ by James McBride
  13. ‘Smart’ by Mary Robison
  14. ‘My Apology’ by Sam Lipsyte
  15. ‘Billboard’ by Richard Bausch
  16. ‘Ozème’s Holiday’ by Kate Chopin
  17. ‘The Waltz’ by Dorothy Parker
  18. ‘The Green Door’ by O. Henry
  19. ‘In The Woods’ by Mary Robison
  20. ‘Sugar Baby’ by Chinua Achebe
  21. ‘Some Like Them Cold’ by Ring Lardner
  22. ‘My Last Story’ by Janet Frame
  23. ‘Haunted’ by Walter Mosley
  24. ‘Yancey’ by Ann Beattie
  25. ‘The Neighbor’ by Russell Banks
  26. ‘A Deserted Street’ by Tawfiq Al-Hakim
  27. ‘Top Of The Food Chain’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
  28. ‘Miracles’ by Lucy Corin

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 2022 favorites

February 2022

The February stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Are You All Right?’ by Wendell Berry
  2. ‘Three-Ten To Yuma’ by Elmore Leonard
  3. ‘Talkin Bout Sonny’ by Toni Cade Bambara
  4. ‘Detroit Skyline 1949’ by Bobbie Ann Mason
  5. ‘Dalyrimple Goes Wrong’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  6. ‘The Terrapin’ by Patricia Highsmith
  7. ‘Something Nice’ by Mary Gaitskill
  8. ‘A Visit’ by Steven Millhauser
  9. ‘Sun City’ by Caitlin Horrocks
  10. ‘The Tin Butterfly’ by Mary McCarthy
  11. ‘Do With Me What You Will’ by Joyce Carol Oates
  12. ‘A Figure Of Speech’ by Tess Gallagher
  13. ‘Death Of A Favorite’ by J.F. Powers
  14. ‘Haircut’ by Ring Lardner
  15. ‘Ghost Patrol’ by Sinclair Lewis
  16. ‘I Walk Between The Raindrops’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle

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.

May 2015 favorites

May2015

May 2015

The May stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Medal From Jerusalem’ by Irwin Shaw
  2. ‘A Silver Dish’ by Saul Bellow
  3. ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ by Ernest Hemingway
  4. ‘One Off The Short List’ by Doris Lessing
  5. ‘Neighbors’ by Diane Oliver
  6. ‘Drenched In Light’ by Zora Neale Hurston
  7. ‘The Snows Of Kilimanjaro’ by Ernest Hemingway
  8. ‘Eli, The Fanatic’ by Philip Roth
  9. ‘The Gift Of The Prodigal’ by Peter Taylor
  10. ‘Che Ti Dice La Patria?’ by Ernest Hemingway
  11. ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ by Ernest Hemingway
  12. ‘The New Order’ by Nancy Hale
  13. ‘Three Million Yen’ by Yukio Mishima
  14. ‘The Supper’ by Tadeusz Borowski
  15. ‘The Interior Castle’ by Jean Stafford
  16. ‘How I Contemplated The World From The Detroit House Of Correction And Began My Life Over Again’ by Joyce Carol Oates
  17. ‘A Simple Enquiry’ by Ernest Hemingway
  18. ‘Janus’ by Ann Beattie
  19. ‘Family Portrait’ by Sherman Alexie
  20. ‘Champion’ by Ring Lardner
  21. ‘The End Of The World’ by Dino Buzzati

April 2015 favorites

April2015

April 2015

The April stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Bullet In The Brain’ by Tobias Wolff
  2. ‘The Shawl’ by Cynthia Ozick
  3. ‘The Bath’ by Raymond Carver
  4. ‘The Five-Forty-Eight’ by John Cheever
  5. ‘The Living’ by Mary Lavin
  6. ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ by Raymond Carver
  7. ‘Feathers’ by Raymond Carver
  8. ‘Death Of A Right Fielder’ by Stuart Dybek
  9. ‘Death Of A Traveling Salesman’ by Eudora Welty
  10. ‘Everything Stuck To Him’ by Raymond Carver
  11. ‘The Vertical Ladder’ by William Sansom
  12. ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell
  13. ‘A Small, Good Thing’ by Raymond Carver
  14. ‘The Patented Gate And The Mean Hamburger’ by Robert Penn Warren
  15. ‘One Throw’ by W.C. Heinz
  16. ‘One Gram Short’ by Etgar Keret
  17. ‘Game’ by Donald Barthelme
  18. ‘Alibi Ike’ by Ring Lardner
  19. ‘Smoke’ by Michael Chabon
  20. ‘The Jewbird’ by Bernard Malamud
  21. ‘The Pitcher And The Plutocrat’ by P.G. Wodehouse
  22. ‘The Hitchhiking Game’ by Milan Kundera
  23. ‘Tony’s Wife’ by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
  24. ‘The Man Who Saw Through Heaven’ by Wilbur Daniel Steele