When I was in creative writing workshops in university, we studied short stories to become better writers. It’s a time-old tradition that encourages fledgling authors to focus on honing bite-sized narratives before they tackle a full-length novel. Writing a really good short story is a very hard thing to do. Trust me. I learned that the hard way. That’s why I wanted to share some short story collections with you all in the hopes that I may entice you to pick one up, instead of the latest hefty tome from your favourite wordsmith.
Short story collections with multiple writers are also a great way to introduce yourself to new authors you might not hear about otherwise. Crafty editors can surprise you with voices, tones, genres, or writing styles that are straight out of left field, but nonetheless compelling. These are some of the voices and collections that have resonated with me so far. The great thing about them is that you can dip in and out, reading a story here and there as your interest ebbs and flows. You don’t have to remember the plot, characters, or anything else. The next story will be waiting when you’re ready to start again.
Stones by Timothy Findley
Timothy Findley was a quintessentially Canadian author. If memory serves, we studied the story “Dreams” from the collection Stones in one of my workshops. I remember marking up the pages of my copy with my own thoughts, as well as our professor’s insightful analysis, and being taken with the intense atmosphere and dramatic tone of the piece.
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Lorrie Moore’s collection Self-Help felt like she had gotten inside my head somehow. Several of her character’s voices felt eerily familiar, like sisters or alter egos or best friends that end up mimicking each other’s speech patterns. While we don’t have Self-Help, we do have another more recent collection available in our catalogue. Birds of America has one of the highest Goodreads ratings I’ve seen in a while (4.10). It seems to pick up where the other one left off, focusing on stories about three-dimensional women with dry, witty, sometimes darkly comic tones mainly experiencing existential angst. Moore writes funny, engaging, smart short fiction that’s worth giving a try.
As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod
I remember MacLeod’s story “The Boat” causing a lot of excited discussion in one of my fiction workshops. Us baby writers were all struck by the beauty and coherence of its language. There wasn’t one word that stood out as wrong or sounded out of place. The world of a Nova Scotian fisherman and his son who narrates the tale is an enclosed circle, so complete is the author’s command of world-building. We have two of MacLeod’s collections in our catalogue with similar stories. I encourage you to take one out and see how the two of you get on.
The Journey Prize Stories
The Journey Prize collections used to be yearly anthologies of stories that are in contention for the Journey Prize from publisher McClelland and Stewart and the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Now, there’s been a change and each story that’s accepted for publication in the collection will receive a 1,000 dollar prize. The goal is to provide a platform for aspiring Canadian professional writers to be seen on a major stage. Back in 1991, Yann Martel won for his story “The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios.” It goes to show how powerful a Journey Prize win can be for an author’s career. These books contain hidden treasures. Names you may never have heard before who have written prose that packs a punch.
Flash Fiction International
One form of short story I was never able to figure out was flash fiction. If writing a short story is hard, writing flash fiction is much, much harder. The definition varies depending on who you ask, but generally the maximum length is somewhere around 1,000 words. The ability to suffuse that amount of words or less with enough intrigue and meaning to allow the story to stick in a reader’s mind is an incredibly difficult art form. All of the hallmarks of good fiction — strong sense of character, distinct voice, engaging style, and a plot with a strong beginning, middle, and end — these are all strengthened with repetition. More than one instance of character development, for example. Ironically, I believe it takes longer to develop the requisite skills for flash fiction. Maybe one of these days I’ll get there! In the meantime, there are anthologies to read.
Flash Fiction International is what it says on the tin. A compilation of pieces from six different continents — 83 works in total! Not many anthologies can say the same, I think. Please let me know in the comments what short stories have stuck with you over the years. Do you read them for pleasure or have they been relegated to your academic past? Drop me a line and let me know.
Ooh, lovely recommendations, I’m excited to check them out! Not to be entirely cliche, but the short story that lingered with me longest is ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. Oh, and also a short story I first read in high school, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ by Roald Dahl. I think the latter stuck with me because I ended up rewriting it for an assignment, and I did so from the husband’s POV, where he’s the murderer. It was a disturbing headspace to get into for fifteen year old me, and I remember arguing with my mom about the way I depicted the narrator’s drive to murder his wife (she thought it didn’t make sense as a motive, but I still stand by what I wrote!)
Thanks for the comment, Sumayyah! I’d be curious to take a look at your story sometime! I’ll have to look up that one by Roald Dahl. I’ve read some by him before and enjoyed them. Of course, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a classic, and I debated including it. I remember it having a big impact on me in high school. Let me know if you try any of these collections!