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

Hold Your Fire by Chloe Wilson

Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan

In the Time of Foxes by Jo Lennan

Shirl by Wayne Marshall

Wild Fearless Chests by Mandy Beaumont

Feet to the Stars by Susan Midalia