Short Fiction:
A guide on how to begin and who to read
Welcome to my guide to short stories!!
I personally love short stories and I think it is the ultimate challenge to see the skills of an author. Sure, in 300 pages an author can give us beautiful metaphors, complex relationships, and a well thought-out message. But can they do it in 20 pages?
Short fiction also forces the author to write in a concise and clean way, which shows just how masterfully they write. Every word must mean something and have a purpose in the story.
I used to be in an academic competition team where I was the expert in Literature and Shakespeare. That meant reading 20 short stories and 4 Shakespeare plays each season. It was exhasting, for only in this setting would you need to memorize the hosts at every party in Fitzgerald's "The Camel's Back", but it was also incredibly enriching. I got to read four to five stories from master writers and get exposed to literarture that I wouldn't have otherwise.
If you are bibliophile, a literature nerd, or a grammar enthusiast, I highly suggest exploring the world of short fiction. It will give you an incredibly diverse literary repertoire in very little time.
I am focusing today on popular writers who are mostly American because they are the ones I read the most.
Here are some of my suggestions of where to start exploring short fiction and who to look out for:
Classic American:
There are of course many well-known American authors who are well revered for their short stories. One of my favorites who I have very recently been introduced to is Kate Chopin. She wrote in the late nineteenth century and her stories are easy to follow, very good as a start to short stories, but very layered. Her story "Story of an Hour" is very well-known and one of the shortest I have ever read. It is complex and beautifully written but also hits very powerfully. Another very famous is "Désirée's Baby." Both stories have twist elements that are masterfully woven into the endings and can be starters of very interesting analysis conversations. These stories and more are available in the public domain, which makes them very accessible.
William Faulkner is one of the best-known authors of short fiction. His pieces are very layered and I have found one of the hardest authors to read. My favorites are "A Rose for Emily" and "Dry September." Both are stories about a woman and the town's impression of her. I found both very interesting and have been in conversations about how to interpret different details in the stories.
One other author who almost exclusively wrote short stories is Eudora Welty, widely regarded as one of the best short story writers of the twentieth century. Welty was a Southern writer in a very segregated environment but she was ahead of her time and had Northern values and beliefs. I think her stories send messages of empathy and unity that fight prejudicial barriers. Some of my favorite short stories of hers are "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies," which I think is an excellent place to start, "A Worn Path," and "Why I Live at the P. O."
Surprising Americans:
Some of my favorite American short story authors are very well known, but for other genres of literature. I have even talked to multiple English teachers who did not know that they wrote short fiction. One of the most famous examples is F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the classic The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald is one of my absolute favorite authors, I love his style and how he develops narratives, and his short stories are just as great. I recommend starting with "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", it is a perfect example of Fitzgerald's short story style and a delightful story. If you like to begin reading a new author with a piece you are already familiar with, I recommend "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". That's right! Fitzgerald wrote "Benjamin Button!" It is a fantastic short story, very funny and touching. It is different from the film adaptation but different enough that only the basic plot is comparable and the other set pieces are not. I also really loved "The Camel's Back." It is also funny and charming. It takes place over Christmas time, so it might be a quick holiday read.
Another very surprising short story writer is Langston Hughes. Hughes is known for his deeply impactful poetry from the Harlem Renaissance about civil rights and Black pride, but not so much for his short stories. However, my first encounter with his writing was through his short stories. I read "Thank You Ma'am" in fourth grade. Another very short piece is "Breakfast in Virginia." His short stories discuss the same subjects as his poems in an equally impactful way.
Thrill, Horror, and Mystery:
Although the genres I gravitate towards are literary fiction and romance, to me, there is still nothing like a well-crafted thriller or mystery. One of the kings and trailblazers of the horror and thrill genre is Edgar Allen Poe. Poe's stories are spine-tingling, eye-catching, and sometimes straight-up bonkers. My absolute favorite is "The Tell-Tale Heart." Short but extremely well developed with a character-driven narrative. "The Cask of Amontillado" is one of his most famous, and for good reason. "The Masque of the Red Death" is not quite as scary but equally compelling.
One of my favorite short stories of all time was actually written by the biggest surprise of all. Who would have thought that Roald Dahl, author of the children's classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda, would have written a story about murder? And it is brilliant, too! Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" is an incredible read with ironic twists and turns in every sentence.
