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Post by doccreed on Sept 22, 2018 18:18:19 GMT
I am a gluttonous consumer of short stories. My interest in them and how they are crafted began in 2004; up to that point I had read stuff by Stephen King only and a few token classics in high school. I knew from an early age that I had a gift for writing but I wanted to know more about this particular artform. I have learned a lot about restraint and finding and setting a tone.
For me, the challenge is being economical and knowing how much to tell and how much to show. (This isn't a problem for me in the long form, like a novel.) No matter how many stories I read, I am continually learning about artistry, dialogue, boundaries, and, in some cases, the power of simplicity.
Right now I am reading The Best American Short Stories (2006) which was edited by Ann Patchett. I like to be surprised at a story- to gasp, to be horrified, to think about something in a new light. Eudora Welty has knocked the wind out of me on many occasions and only she can have me reaching for the Kleenex. She helps us to recognize and love (or at least understand) the humanity we see in others.
What do you like to find in a short story? Who do you believe are the best writers of this form?
Besides Eudora, I admire Breece DJ Pancake, Brad Watson, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Alice Munro, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Conner, and Ron Rash.
hollygolightly You have recommended George Saunders and T. C. Boyle but I have not read them yet. I do remember reading the first couple chapters of The Tortilla Curtain and being smitten. Are you a Poe fan? I don't really like his writing but I appreciate his style and contributions to the horror genre. (He preceded Blackwood and Lovecraft, IIRC.)
If you mention your favorite short stories, please don't give away crucial details or the ending. You may use spoilers, of course.
morgan I am going to start "Abraham's Boys" by Joe Hill, today.
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Post by morgan on Sept 23, 2018 0:15:13 GMT
This is a bit off topic, but since The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle was mentioned I just wanted to add that I thought the book was amazing. A difficult read in terms of subject matter, but so good. It was one of SK's recommended books at the end of On Writing. I haven't read anything else by that author, but I need to!
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Post by hollygolightly on Sept 23, 2018 1:40:24 GMT
How exciting to have this thread! I love short stories. The very first collection I read was when I was 10 - it was from those book orders they used to do in school - do y'all remember those? I loved ordering books from there. After that I just kept my eyes open for collections all the time. There is much instant gratification to be had in them. As an adult, I always started browsing the fiction section in the bookstores at the very beginning - and before "A", there were Anthologies. And I started with classics - oh they were good. And I just kept going. Best American is a series I've been buying since 1992. I have them all, I love them muchly. I can't even begin to pick a favorite story. There are many that stick with me. Sometimes if I'm not reading anything particularly engrossing, I'll pick a random volume and re-read some favorites. There's also O'Henry Prize stories, Best Southern Short Stories, Best New Voices, Best of the Fiction Workshops, the periodicals like Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Zyzzyva. I could write an epistle on my love of short stories.
My first TC Boyle book was The Road to Wellville - it was hysterical. I own The Tortilla Curtain, but haven't read it yet. I got his collection of shorts from a bookclub membership by accident, but they were fabulous and I'm glad I own it. It's a huge volume and he writes such off the wall unusual stuff. George Saunders is similar in that regard. I can't think of the word, surely there must be a word for it. To me, they are the Tim Burton of the literary world. And Karen Russell is similar. And I love all of that craziness, but I love Sue Miller/Ann Tyler type stories too - just sort ordinary stories about ordinary people or maybe how odd and quirky people are their own brand of normal. In one of the collections I like to read there used to be a list of the 100 finalists in the story selections and there would be the title of the story and a 1 sentence description - I loved reading even those - they were so unusual - like "down on his luck pizza delivery guy follows a turtle into a cave of wonders" (I'm just making that up but they were seriously that random) and I'd just be dying to read that story. I'll take a look and see if I can figure out which collection that is.
I'll stop now. I could go on and on like Bubba about shrimp.
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scratch
Full Member
where it itches
Posts: 121
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Post by scratch on Oct 6, 2018 5:30:49 GMT
You are after my own heart about Eudora Welty. She is a treasure for my state. And Flannery? Oh Lord that "A Good Man is Hard To Find" story? Holy crap. I'll throw out some individual stories I like when it's not so late as now. Cool thread.
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Post by doccreed on Oct 10, 2018 17:48:49 GMT
You are after my own heart about Eudora Welty. She is a treasure for my state. And Flannery? Oh Lord that "A Good Man is Hard To Find" story? Holy crap. I'll throw out some individual stories I like when it's not so late as now. Cool thread.
I am planning a trip to Jackson in honor of Welty and will be following the Natchez Trace to the place where Lewis Meriwether died. I have a feeling it will be a kind of pilgrimage for me; honoring two of my heroes. |
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Post by neesy on Oct 11, 2018 18:13:10 GMT
You are after my own heart about Eudora Welty. She is a treasure for my state. And Flannery? Oh Lord that "A Good Man is Hard To Find" story? Holy crap. I'll throw out some individual stories I like when it's not so late as now. Cool thread.
I am planning a trip to Jackson in honor of Welty and will be following the Natchez Trace to the place where Lewis Meriwether died. I have a feeling it will be a kind of pilgrimage for me; honoring two of my heroes. What?!
Thought it might be you know who (SK) but since this isn't the SKMB, we'll let you get away with it.
I like the woman who wrote the Outlander series plus I've enjoyed Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro's stories for years. Have you heard of Miriam Toews? She's another writer that I like
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Post by doccreed on Oct 11, 2018 18:24:52 GMT
She is a treasure to me, too. She is my favorite writer and I have read every word she ever wrote except for Losing Battles and about a dozen stories. What have you read of hers?
I am planning a trip to Jackson in honor of Welty and will be following the Natchez Trace to the place where Lewis Meriwether died. I have a feeling it will be a kind of pilgrimage for me; honoring two of my heroes. What?!
Thought it might be you know who (SK) but since this isn't the SKMB, we'll let you get away with it.
I like the woman who wrote the Outlander series plus I've enjoyed Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro's stories for years. Have you heard of Miriam Toews? She's another writer that I like
I have not read Toews. Has she written anything note-worthy? |
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Post by doccreed on Oct 11, 2018 18:38:08 GMT
Stephen King has written some excellent short stories: "Last Rung on the Ladder", "The Man in the Black Suit", "The Reach", and "Graduation Afternoon". These are a few that are, in my opinion, built to last.
I believe Lisey's Story, The Shining, Dolores Claiborne, The Long Walk, and Misery are some novels that have something to say and will probably stand the test of time. I can never overstate the impact King has made on modern fiction and the generation of hopeful writers he has mentored.
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Post by osnafrank on Oct 11, 2018 19:28:18 GMT
Stephen King has written some excellent short stories: "Last Rung on the Ladder", "The Man in the Black Suit", "The Reach", and "Graduation Afternoon". These are a few that are, in my opinion, built to last.
I believe Lisey's Story, The Shining, Dolores Claiborne, The Long Walk, and Misery are some novels that have something to say and will probably stand the test of time. I can never overstate the impact King has made on modern fiction and the generation of hopeful writers he has mentored.
I really Love it, it's so heartbreaking at the end
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Post by neesy on Oct 11, 2018 20:02:54 GMT
What?!
Thought it might be you know who (SK) but since this isn't the SKMB, we'll let you get away with it.
I like the woman who wrote the Outlander series plus I've enjoyed Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro's stories for years. Have you heard of Miriam Toews? She's another writer that I like
I have not read Toews. Has she written anything note-worthy?Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer, best known for her novels A Complicated Kindness and All My Puny Sorrows. She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for body of work.
(She's from a town named Steinbach which is close to the city of Winnipeg)
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Post by neesy on Oct 11, 2018 20:05:37 GMT
"I agree with Dana Jean- King's son Joe is a superior writer,"
doccreed - First time I've heard of this. Only book of his I have read so far is NOS4A2 which I thought was very good.
I remember trying to get that book from the library when I first heard of it - I told them "It has a license plate number on it for some reason" (I hadn't connected the dots yet 
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Post by doccreed on Oct 11, 2018 23:11:13 GMT
"I agree with Dana Jean- King's son Joe is a superior writer,"
doccreed - First time I've heard of this. Only book of his I have read so far is NOS4A2 which I thought was very good.
I remember trying to get that book from the library when I first heard of it - I told them "It has a license plate number on it for some reason" (I hadn't connected the dots yet
Yeah, she said it in one of the group discussions for a Joe Hill story. I believe it is the thread for "New Modern Horror" (not sure about title. )  |
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Post by wireman on Feb 8, 2019 18:25:08 GMT
Science fiction gets short changed some when talking about great American short stories (probably because there are so many horrible science fiction stories ) but I love sci-fi short stories.
Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite science fiction short story writers. If you want to read a mind bending story, try All You Zombies and when you read this story, realize that it was written in 1959. It must have been quite a shocker in 1959. Anyway it's a great story and there was a pretty good movie made called Predestination with Ethan Hawke.
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Post by doccreed on Feb 8, 2019 19:13:20 GMT
Science fiction gets short changed some when talking about great American short stories (probably because there are so many horrible science fiction stories ) but I love sci-fi short stories.
Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite science fiction short story writers. If you want to read a mind bending story, try All You Zombies and when you read this story, realize that it was written in 1959. It must have been quite a shocker in 1959. Anyway it's a great story and there was a pretty good movie made called Predestination with Ethan Hawke.
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Post by wireman on Feb 8, 2019 19:43:37 GMT
Science fiction gets short changed some when talking about great American short stories (probably because there are so many horrible science fiction stories ) but I love sci-fi short stories.
Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite science fiction short story writers. If you want to read a mind bending story, try All You Zombies and when you read this story, realize that it was written in 1959. It must have been quite a shocker in 1959. Anyway it's a great story and there was a pretty good movie made called Predestination with Ethan Hawke.
No, I would call Vonnegut something like a social humorist. He's kind of hard to stick in a category except that he was very funny and satirical. He used science fiction in many of his stories but they really are not science fiction stories. Early in his career, he wrote some science fiction but he was more about social commentary. He used meta-fiction in many novels (especially the later ones). He had this incredible knack of being hilarious and sad at the same time. Slaughterhouse Five is a prime example of that. If you are going to read him, start with Slaughterhouse Five. If you don't like that one, you probably won't like anything else.
Most of his book are 175-250 pages.
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Post by osnafrank on Feb 8, 2019 19:52:49 GMT
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Post by wolf on Jul 27, 2023 14:47:52 GMT
Science fiction gets short changed some when talking about great American short stories (probably because there are so many horrible science fiction stories ) but I love sci-fi short stories.
Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite science fiction short story writers. If you want to read a mind bending story, try All You Zombies and when you read this story, realize that it was written in 1959. It must have been quite a shocker in 1959. Anyway it's a great story and there was a pretty good movie made called Predestination with Ethan Hawke.
Robert Silverberg, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison….the list goes on. Great writing in the sci-fi (and sci-go/horror) world.
Not as well known, but still a great in my book, R.A.Lafferty.
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What?!
