A short fiction reading list
I've been thinking a lot about how short fiction writers learn their craft lately. As much as we can, we learn the building blocks like plot, character, etc., but there's something intangible about short fiction that can only be learned by reading widely. This is a list of short story collections that I would recommend to anyone wanting to improve their craft.
Well-Behaved Women by Emily Paull
You think it, I’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfeld
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
You know you want this / Cat Person and other stories by Kristen Roupenian
Animal Wife by Lara Erlich
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery
Australia Day by Melanie Cheng
Pulse Points by Jennifer Down
A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop
Bird Country by Claire Aman
The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O’Neill
This Taste for Silence by Amanda O’Callaghan
Fabulous Lives by Bindy Prichard
Skyglow by Leslie Thiele
Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan
Fabulous Lives by Bindy Pritchard
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Like a House on Fire by Cate Kennedy
Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven
Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
That Thing Around Your Neck by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
Here Until August by Josephine Rowe
Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh
The Fat Man in History by Peter Carey
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe
The Love of a Bad Man by Laura Elizabeth Woollett