The most recommended short story collections

Who picked these books? Meet our 634 experts.

634 authors created a book list connected to short story collections, and here are their favorite short story collection books.
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Book cover of Buffalo Is The New Buffalo

Rachel A. Rosen Author Of Cascade

From Rachel's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Activist Teacher Designer Troublemaker Disaster

Rachel's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Rachel A. Rosen Why did Rachel love this book?

I’ve been a huge fan of Chelsea Vowel since listening to her podcast, Métis In Space, and an admirer of the decolonial lens she brings to science fiction and fantasy, so I was thrilled when she at last released an entire book of her own fiction.

These are stories about rewriting the past and reclaiming the future for Indigenous peoples in general and Métis people in particular. It is a demanding book in many ways. It demands that you engage with languages and histories that settler Canadian culture seeks to obscure. It demands that you sit with the discomfort of a future in which your own identity is not centred. It demands, on occasion, that you read the footnotes. It demands that you imagine a better future for all of us.

Infused with Vowel’s wit and eye for detail, each story is a challenge and a joy.

By Chelsea Vowel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Buffalo Is The New Buffalo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Powerful stories of “Métis futurism” that envision a world without violence, capitalism, and colonization.

“Education is the new buffalo” is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. The assumption is that many of the pre-Contact ways of living are forever gone, so adaptation is necessary. But Chelsea Vowel asks, “Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways, will never come back, what if we simply ensure that they do?”

Inspired by classic and…


Book cover of Bliss Montage: Stories

Mikki Hernandez Author Of Cake Mix: Learning to Love All Your Ingredients

From Mikki's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Student-at-heart Storyteller Proud millennial Culture junkie Traveler

Mikki's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Mikki Hernandez Why did Mikki love this book?

I adore short stories and Ling Ma does the medium justice with her willingness to push outside reality in such a dark, beautiful way.


The stories range across a variety of characters however there’s a thread I found extremely relatable as a young woman who isn’t maybe so young anymore. This tendency to fantasize a different future for myself if I didn’t do x, y, z… or replaying the past and wondering how I dated that person, stayed in that toxic friendship, or frankly, survived a foolish night out ;)

I deeply appreciate how Ma toys with time and perspective while using humor and absurdity to grapple with growing pains.

By Ling Ma,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bliss Montage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A National Indie Bestseller
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Story Prize, and a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize
A Best Book of the Year at The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Houston Chronicle, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Mashable, Polygon, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice

“Uncanny and haunting . . . Genius.” ―Michele Filgate, The Washington Post
“Dazzling.” ―Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end?

In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings…


Book cover of Galatea

Helen Benigni Author Of The Myth of the Year: Returning to the Origin of the Druid Calendar

From Helen's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Ecofeminist Comparative mythologist Hippie Hitch-hiker of the universe

Helen's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Helen Benigni Why did Helen love this book?

Madeline Miller's book Galatea re-creates the story of the Greek sculptor, Pygmalion, who brings his statue of Galatea to life and keeps her as his wife. Those familiar with the recent rendition of this timeless myth of a man creating a woman of his own making will be shocked to learn that many women find this premise frightening.

Reader response to this book is also frightening for women who come to the realization that in some form or another, whether minor or of major concern, the phenomena of men wanting to re-make women into their own image may have entered their relationship with a man at one time or another.

As the reader clutches the small booklet in their hand reading quickly through its fifty pages, they may wonder whether the size and brevity of the book enhances the reading experience in a way as to mock having someone like…

By Madeline Miller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Galatea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An enchanting short story from Madeline Miller that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, now in hardcover for the first time

**A small hardcover edition featuring a new afterword by Madeline Miller**

In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece—the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen—the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence.

In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to…


Book cover of Candescent Blooms

Eugen Bacon Author Of Danged Black Thing

From my list on short stories in literary and speculative fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African Australian author of several novels and fiction collections, and a finalist in the 2022 World Fantasy Award. I was announced in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. I have a master's degree with distinction in distributed computer systems, a master's degree in creative writing, and a PhD in creative writing. The short story is my sweetest spot. I have a deep passion for the literary speculative, and I write across genres and forms, with award-winning genre-bending works. I am especially curious about stories of culture, diversity, climate change, writing the other, and betwixt.

Eugen's book list on short stories in literary and speculative fiction

Eugen Bacon Why did Eugen love this book?

Andrew Hook is a European slipstream author proficient in the literary weird. He certainly does not disappoint in his new collection of Hollywood’s living dead. Candescent Blooms rouses legends of the silver screen right there in your living room, and they are broken, unbroken, full of many secrets. And you know, you know—because history says so—that the actors and actresses are dead, yet living, right there on your page. Imbued with levity wrapped in anguish. Thimble-sized, you will not find a literary collection this superb in a long time.   

By Andrew Hook,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Candescent Blooms as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Candescent Blooms is a collection of twelve short stories which form fictionalised biographies of mostly Golden Era Hollywood actors who suffered untimely deaths. From Olive Thomas in 1920 through to Grace Kelly in 1982, these pieces utilise facts, fiction, gossip, movies and unreliable memories to examine the life of each individual character set against a Hollywood background of hope and corruption, opportunity and reality.


Book cover of The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

David Quantick Author Of All My Colors

From my list on expanding the mind through pleasure and strangeness.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like most people, I read lots of different kinds of books, but I am often drawn to novels with unusual themes, structure, or all those things. As a comedy writer, I have always loved surreal writing – the Goon Shows on the radio, or the plays of NF Simpson – and this applies to my taste in literature as well. The unreal, the slightly detuned, anything that suggests this world is not entirely what it seems, or if it is what it seems, then it is an idiot.

David's book list on expanding the mind through pleasure and strangeness

David Quantick Why did David love this book?

Best known as a surrealist painter, Carrington is one of my favourite artists for her strange, half-dreamy figures and other-worldly paintings. Her written work is similarly disturbing: animals that tear their own faces off, monsters, and the dead populate these short but memorable stories. Surrealism can often be wearing in print, but Carrington is a writer who balances the bizarre with the unsettling perfectly.

By Leonora Carrington,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Complete Stories, a collection of Carrington’s published and unpublished short stories—many newly translated from their original French and Spanish—is a terrific introduction to her bizarre, dreamlike worlds.” —Carmen Maria Machado, NPR

Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life.

Published to coincide with the centennial of her birth, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington collects for the first time all of…


Book cover of The Disappeared: Stories

Sue Mell Author Of A New Day: Stories

From my list on short story love, loss, and starting over.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in an intellectual household with a New Yorker subscription, I became a fan of the short story early on, with J.D. Salinger, Ann Beattie, and Raymond Carver forming a baseline of personal taste and inspiration. I especially love stories that resonate with my own sense of yearning for life and love—and the deep losses that inevitably come our way. Decades of reading would pass before I began writing stories myself, and I’m thrilled to have a chance to recommend these moving and beautifully written collections.

Sue's book list on short story love, loss, and starting over

Sue Mell Why did Sue love this book?

This is a collection after my own heart as a reader and writer. I love how tenderly Porter portrays his characters—people so much like ones I’ve known—as they try to come to terms with who they’ve become and who they used to be.

I felt like these stories spoke directly to the way I often find myself tripping through time, mourning friendships or romantic relationships that were suddenly cut short, and others that simply faded over time.

By Andrew Porter,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Disappeared as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A collection of stories that trace the threads of loss and displacement running through all our lives, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Theory of Light and Matter

“What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life.” —Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want

A husband and wife hear a mysterious bump in the night. A father mourns the closeness he has lost with his son. A friendship with a married couple turns into a dangerous codependency. With gorgeous sensitivity, assurance, and a propulsive sense of menace, these stories center on disappearances both literal and…


Book cover of In the Country: Stories

Renee Macalino Author Of The ABCs Of Asian American History: A Celebration from A to Z of All Asian Americans, from Bangladeshi Americans to Vietnamese Americans

From my list on the Asian American immigrant experience.

Why am I passionate about this?

Born in the Philippines and raised in the US from the age of 4, Renee didn't see the stories of her culture reflected in books until she was a freshman in college at UC Berkeley. Renee wrote her first novel, The Hour of Daydreams, which was inspired by the ghost stories her family told. It received the inaugural Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Finalist award. Her children’s book One Hundred Percent Me is the book she wishes she could’ve read to her own daughters. With her latest book, The ABCs of Asian American History, Renee hopes young readers will celebrate the vast contributions of Asian Americans to US culture, politics, arts, and society.

Renee's book list on the Asian American immigrant experience

Renee Macalino Why did Renee love this book?

Alvar’s stories of men and women of the Philippine diaspora take place all over the globe, shedding insight on the export of labor.

As they separate from the safety and familiarity of family, the characters’ longing and aspirations are universal. This is an important book that helps to illuminate a fascinating and often painful experience of leaving, losing, and searching for home.

By Mia Alvar,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked In the Country as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In these nine globe-trotting tales, Mia Alvar gives voice to the women and men of the Philippines and its diaspora.

From teachers to housemaids, from mothers to sons, Alvar’s stories explore the universal experiences of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined. In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home—and marks the arrival of a formidable new voice in literature.


Book cover of Cane

David G. Nicholls Author Of Conjuring the Folk: Forms of Modernity in African America

From my list on understanding the Great Black Migration.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a lifelong reader and wanted to study literature from an early age. I grew up in Indianapolis, one of the cities reshaped by the Great Black Migration. I went to graduate school at the University of Chicago and found myself once again in the urban Midwest. My research for Conjuring the Folk led me to discover a trove of short stories by George Wylie Henderson, a Black writer from Alabama who migrated to Harlem. I edited the stories and published them as Harlem Calling: The Collected Stories of George Wylie Henderson. I'm a contributor to African American Review, the Journal of Modern Literature, and the Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

David's book list on understanding the Great Black Migration

David G. Nicholls Why did David love this book?

Cane is an experimental, modernist work combining poetry, fictional vignettes, and dramatic dialogue as it portrays Black life in the sugar cane fields of the South and in the urban neighborhoods of recent migrants. I first read Cane while I was living in an apartment on the south side of Chicago, a destination for hundreds of thousands of Black migrants in the mid-twentieth century; the tracks of the Illinois Central railroad, their main transit route from the South, were just steps away from my home. The book drew my attention to the forces shaping my neighborhood, while it also led me to begin thinking about the connections between art and migration. It is a very lyrical and powerful book—and the subject of the second chapter of my book.

By Jean Toomer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1923, Jean Toomer's Cane is an innovative literary work-part drama, part poetry, part fiction-powerfully evoking black life in the South. Rich in imagery, Toomer's impressionistic, sometimes surrealistic sketches of Southern rural and urban life are permeated by visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and fire; the northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt streets. This iconic work of American literature is published with a new afterword by Rudolph Byrd of Emory University and Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University, who provide groundbreaking biographical information on Toomer, place his writing within the context of American…


Book cover of The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

Leslie Anne Frye-Thomas Author Of Pum Pum Rock—There's No Place Like Homo

From my list on collection of queer themes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an Emmy Award-winning writer, wife, and adoptive mother with an unapologetic passion for Black queer stories. I'm also an artist-activist who takes great pride in producing content that sparks honest dialogue and positive change. Life's complexities energize me, and, as a queer artist of color, I'm committed to reflecting these intricacies in my work. I write, produce video, and host allyship seminars as well as art as activism workshops for LGBTQ+ youth. If you're both inspired and entertained by layered depictions of BIPOC queer culture then please check out the recs in my Queer-tastic reading list. Enjoy!

Leslie's book list on collection of queer themes

Leslie Anne Frye-Thomas Why did Leslie love this book?

The Memory Librarian is an adaptation of Monáe's 2018 emotion picture, Dirty Computer. Told in the icon's signature Afro-futuristic fashion, this unquestionably queer AF collection of sci-fi stories describes a dystopian world where dirty computers (people who stray from societal norms) are ostracized in the worse ways imaginable. What's even scarier, while the stories take place in the future, the premise isn't that far from our present-day reality.

Books that boast BIPOC themes are being banned at a record rate. And this year alone, over 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced into legislation. Just as Americans have banded together around their common causes, the inhabitants in Monáe's sci-fi saga unite as chosen family. Together they navigate technology, battle memory control, explore identity, and fight for freedom in a ruthless police state.

"Everything comes full circle. And time takes care of itself. Our work is the work of…

By Janelle Monáe,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Memory Librarian as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Memory Librarian music, fashion, film and futurist icon Janelle Monae returns to the Afrofuturistic world of her critically acclaimed album, Dirty Computer, to explore how different threads of liberation - queerness, race, gender plurality, love - become tangled in a totalitarian landscape... and to discover costs of unravelling them.

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

Janelle Monae and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monae such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts -…


Book cover of A Grand Old Time

Jaq D Hawkins Author Of Dance of the Goblins

From my list on non-fantasy books for fantasy readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been an avid reader across many genres since I learned to read as a child and have wandered into all sorts of categories to find literature I love. Fantasy became my first love, but that didn't mean I had to abandon everything else. I like finding great books that don't make the big publisher lists with their generic output. Since the rise of indie publishing, I've developed a habit of sampling anything that sounds like it might be interesting and have found some amazing and very original stories!

Jaq's book list on non-fantasy books for fantasy readers

Jaq D Hawkins Why did Jaq love this book?

Fantasy readers often enjoy a good quest. While this would be classed as a feel-good book that takes place in the real world, there are fantastical elements in the adventures of the protagonist, an elderly lady who decides care home life is too dull for her.

A rocky start followed by an interesting series of decisions and taking chances makes for an uplifting adventure story as fulfilling as a typical Fantasy quest.

By Judy Leigh,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Grand Old Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Brilliantly funny, emotional and uplifting' Miranda Dickinson

Heartwarming, hilarious and fun - the perfect read for anyone who loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Man Called Ove, Ruth Jones and JoJo Moyes.

Evie Gallagher is regretting her hasty move into a care home. She may be seventy-five and recently widowed, but she's absolutely not dead yet. And so, one morning, Evie walks out of Sheldon Lodge and sets off on a Great Adventure across Europe.

But not everyone thinks Great Adventures are appropriate for women of Evie's age, least of all her son Brendan and his wife Maura, who…