Skip to content

Short Story writers

 

2023:

SHORT STORY:   Stories from The New Yorker 2023  

  1. The Other Party – M. Klam   – excellent
  2. Notions of the Sacred – A. Savas  – excellent
  3. Hammer Attack – Han Ong  – good
  4. Wednesday’s Child – Yiyun Li – too depressing
  5. Different People – C. Sestanocivh – no conflict…just dishwater grey!
  6. The Middle Voice – H. Kang  – main character has no voice…story has no plot.
  7. Sad Dead – Mariana Enriquez – TOP!!  Who is this writer?…from Buenos Aires (1973)
  8. The Last Grownup – Allegra Goodman – divorced couple moving on….nothing special

 

2022:

  1. Redeployment – P. Klay (12 short stories)
  2. Collected Stories – Isaac Bashevis Singer
  3. A Manual for Cleaning Women – Lucia Berlin (short stories)
  4. Gordo – J. Cortez (12 stories) – REVIEW
  5. Last Night – James Salter (10 short stories)
  6. Dark as Last Night – Tony Birch (Australia)  …in progress

 

2021:    total 171 stories read

  1. Heads of Colored People – Nafissa Thompson-Spires  (12 short stories)  REVIEW
  2. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love  (17 stories) – R. Carver (1981) REVIEW
  3. Stories From The Warm Zone – (8 stories) Jessica Anderson (1987)  REVIEW
  4. The Awkward Black Man – (17 stories) Walter Mosley  REVIEW
  5. Irish Short Stories – J. McGahern (10), W. Trevor (13), C. Keegan (8)   REVIEW 
  6. Heads of Colored People – Nafissa Thompson-Spires  (12 short stories)  REVIEW
  7. Why the Moon Travels – (20) Oein DeBhairduin  REVIEW  
  8. A Baker’s Dozen – (13 stories) Dorothy Hewett (2001) REVIEW
  9. The Collected Stories (30) of Jean Stafford – J. Stafford  1970 Pulitzer Prize  REVIEW
  10. Secrets Never Told – (11 stories) Dermot Bolger  REVIEW

2020:

  1. The High Places – Fiona McFarlane (13 short stories) #AWW2020
  2. Marriages – Amy Witting (6 short stories)  #AWW2020
  3. The Lottery – S. Jackson  #Classic  short story

2019:

  1.  The Screwfly Solution (review)
  2.  And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side  (review)
  3.  The Girl Who Was Plugged in  (review)
  4. J. Updike You’ll never know, Dear, how much I love you – READ
  5.  J. Updike The Alligators – READ
  6.  J. Updike Pigeon Feathers – READ
  7.  W. Trevor  The Piano Teacher’s Pupil – READ
  8.  H. Lawson The Union Buries Its Dead –  READ
  9.  W. Trevor – Meeting At Middle Age – READ
  10. W. Trevor – Access to Children – READ
  11.  W. Trevor – The General’s Day – READ
  12.  W. Trevor – Memoires of Youghal – READ
  13. Short Stories – Shatterday & Other Stories – H. Ellison – READ
  14. Kathleen Murray – In With a Chance – READ (The Dublin Review)
  15. Kevin Barry – Deer Season – READ (The New Yorker)
  16. John Collier – Bottle Party – READ
  17. Anne O’ Brien –  Feather Your Nest – READ
  18. Anna Spargo-Ryan – You Know How It Is – READ 
  19. K. Thompson – Flame Tip –  READ (short fictions, Tasmania)
  20. Short Story: The Island and the Calves – Dermot Healy – READ
  21. Dark Lies the Island – K. Barry (13 short stories) – READ
  22. Rubik – E. Tan – (15 short stories) – READ
  23. The Redemption of Galen Pike – C. Davies (17 short stories) – READ
  24. Hunting the Wild Pineapple – T. Astley – READ (8 short stories)
  25. Like a House on Fire – C. Kennedy – READ (15 short stories)
  26. Dark Entries – R. Aickman – READ (6 short stories)  #RIPXIII
  27. The Angel of the Odd – E.A. Poe – READ
  28. The Birthday of the Infanta – O. Wilde – READ
  29. Short story:  Audition – S. Sayarfiwezadeh – READ (The New Yorker 10.09.2018)
  30. The Knights Tale (classic) – Chaucer – READ  17.11.2018
  31. The Pull of the Moon  – Julie Paul – (12 stories) – READ #CanBookChallenge 16.12.2019
  32. Saints and Sinners – E. O’Brien – READ  #ReadingIrelandMonth19 (short stories)
  33. The Complete Stories – Flannery O’ Connor     (31 stories)
  34. The British Short Story – A. Maunder  (reference book)
  35. Read: 17.02.2019  The Cambridge Introduction to The American Short Story
  36. 28 Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
  37. A Slanting of the Sun – Donal Ryan #ReadingIrelandMonth 19 (20) stories
  38. Astonished Dice – G. Cochrane – READ
  39. Show Them a Good Time – Nicole Flattery  (8 short stories)
  40. The Empty Family –  C. Tóibin (9 short stories)
  41. Fancies and Goodnights – J. Collier  (32 short stories)
  42. Stories published in 2019 The New Yorker:
  43. The Confession – Leila Slimani –  READ 13.02.2019  (short…and pointless)
  44. Asleep at the Wheel – T. C. Boyle – READ  13.02.2019  ( too long and pointless)
  45. TBR:     Stories published in 2018  The New Yorker:
  46. Whoever is there, come on through – Colin Barett – READ    11.02.2019 (..so-so)
  47. Foreign Returned – S. Shepard – READ  17.02.2019 (Plagiarism?..read HERE)
  48. Texas – David Gates – READ – 17.02.2019 (…waste of time)
  49. Writing Teacher – John E. Wideman – READ – 17.02.2019 (…I expected more from this very famous writer. Thoughts rambled on in a nebulous, vague way. Not every story has an epiphany…but I wish this one had at least a ‘point’ !

TBR:  more stories in The New Yorker

  1. The Boundary – J. Lahiri
  2. Bronze – Jeffrey Eugenides
  3. Stansville – Rachel Kushner
  4. Mrs. Crasthorpe – Willliam Trevor
  5. Seeing Ershadi – Nicole Kraus
  6. The Poltroon Husband – Joseph O’ Neill
  7. No More Maybe – Gish Jen
  8. The State – Tommy Orange
  9. The Intermediate Class – Sam Allingham

 

  1. The State of Nature – Camille Bordas
  2. How Did We Come to Know You – Keith Gressen
  3. A Flawless Silence – Yiyun Li
  4. Treatments – Robert Coover
  5. The Boarder – Isaac Bashevis Singer
  6. Without Inspection – Edwidge Danticat
  7. The Long Black Line – John L’Heureux
  8. Stay Down and Take It – Ben Marcus
  9. Silver Tiger – Lu Wang
  10. Orange World – Karen Russel
  11. Fungus – David Gilbert
  12. Omakase – Weike Wang
  13. The Luck of Kotura – Gary Shteyngart

 

  1. The First World – Joseph O’ Neill
  2. Under the Wave – Lauren Groff
  3. The Dog – J.M. Coetzee (Dec 2017)
  4. No More Than Ever – Zadie Smith
  5. I Walk Between the Raindrops – T. Coraghessan Boyle
  6. Displaced – Richard Ford
  7. A Refugee Crisis – Callan Wink
  8. Ways and Means – Sana Krasikov
  9. The Wind Cave – Haruki Murakami
  10. Cecilia Awakened – Tessa Hadley
  11. Poor Girl – Ludmilla Petrushevssky
  12. When We Were Happy We Had Other Names – Yiyun Li
  13. The Rise and Rise of Annie Clark – John L’Heureux
  1. The Coast of Leitrim – Kevin Barry (Ireland)
  2. Flaubert Again – Anne Carson
  3. Waugh – Bryan Washington
  4. Backpack – Tom Earley
  5. Cattle Praise Song – S. Mukasonga
  6. Show Recent Some Love – Sam Lipsyte
  7. The Frog King – Garth Greenwell
  8. Snowing in Greenwich Village – John Updike
  9. Children are Bored on Sunday – Jean Stafford
  10. Chaunt – Jay Williams
  11. Time for the Eyes to Adjust – Linn Ullmann
  12. Acceptance Journey – Mary Gaitskill
  13. The Lazy River – Zadie Smith (Dec 2017)

2018:

#DealMeIn2018     hosted by   @Bibliophilopolis

1.  In With a Chance by Kathleen Murray

In With a Chance by Kathleen Murray in The Dublin Review nr 69. Her writing was clear and simple with a great eye for detail…like Raymond Carver….but she has a long way to go before she fairly can be compared to him.This was an excellent short story, I am amazed! Ms Murray ticks off all the boxes: believable dialogue without being trivial,  shows…does not tell and leaves hints all throughout the story about the characters. For example, Martin, the narrator…he keeps his clothes in the kitchen cabinets. Now, that is a definite red flag, this man lives alone! Ms Murray’s writing is terse and powerful. She is one of the fresh new Irish voices.  Here is the link for  Cork International Short Story Festival!

2. Bottle Party by John Collier (funny!)

Bottle Party by John Collier in his collection Fancies and Goodnights vol 1.  Collier was  British novelist, poet and occasional screenwriter…best known as the author of macabre or bizarre short stories with trick endings.  Tone: spooky!  The main character Franklin Fletcher wants a hobby and buys a Jinn in a bottle to grant his wishes: palace with the most beautiful girl in the world.  Of course strange things happen! I loved Collier’s description right out of a Hollywood B-film: plump and dusky muscles (swarthy or dark-skinned); the Jinn withdrew with a a soapy smile (excessively suave or ingratiating). MORAL: don’t fear one who attacks… fear the fake friend that hugs you!

3.  Feather Your Nest by Anne O’ Brien (not impressed)

Feather Your Nest by Anne O’ Brien  won the Bath Short Story Prize 2016.  Tone: Familiar, casual family talk – characters ask each other questions about the recent ‘house for sale’ sign next door. The narrator watches neighbors closely. They have something the narrator is longing for. Conflict Internal:  ‘I want to scream’. – narrator reveals hidden fears…37 yrs…there’s still time….but for what? Conflict External: “Burnout’ with one word we imagine pressure at work? emotional demand? Work-family conflict? It makes me curious to read further. Conclusion: Satisfied? Ending left me empty.    Did story fascinate you? Not at all  How did it make you feel? I struggled with the story. The dialogue did not add to the atmosphere (no tit-for-tat between husband and wife that I expected especially if one partner is struggling with a burnout.)  Descriptions flow.. (images of the  body: patches of eczema, hair legs, thinning crown of a head, builders bottoms, dark sweat stains on t-shirts, plump hand, marrow of my bones) but did not jolt me.

Short Stories by James Tiptree jr.

  1. Biography:  James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon – Julie Phillips  READ
  2. The Last Flight of Doctor Ain:  (1969)
  • The story drifts between the past and present.
  • Dr. Ain is on a mission to save the world for a “later race”.
  • Allusions to W.H. Hudson’s novel Green Mansions and
  • the “Gaea Gloriatric“….Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life…
  • are the keys that will unlock the theme in the story.
  • Dr Ain boards his last flight and no one sees the  moral insanity inside him.
  • Note: After the first reading I was confused.
  • It took a second reading and some note taking to
  • finally appreciate this classic short story by one of SF   ‘grande dames’.