Recommended reading: short stories

Today is International Short Story Day, so I thought I’d bring some short stories to the blog. Here is a list of links to some of the short stories available online that I’ve enjoyed in the last few years:

• Nina Allan’s “Flying in the Face of God” [Booktrust, PDF]
• Chris Beckett’s “Johnny’s New Job” (author’s website)
• Jeremy R. Butler’s “Recipe Collecting in the Asteroid Belt” (Apex Magazine)
• Ted Chiang’s “Understand” (Infinity Plus)
• Zen Cho’s “The Guest” (Expanded Horizons)
• David Constantine’s “Tea at the Midland” [PDF]
• Stuart Evers’ “What’s in Swindon?” (publisher’s website)
• Aminatta Forna’s “Haywards Heath” [Booktrust, PDF]
• John Grant’s “Wooden Horse” (Infinity Plus)
• Sarah Hall’s “Butcher’s Perfume” [Booktrust, PDF]
• Nalo Hopkinson’s “A Raggy Dog, a Shaggy Dog” (Apex Magazine)
• Alois Hotschnig’s “Two Ways of Leaving” (Untitled Books)
• Will Ludwigsen’s “In Search Of” (Apex Magazine)
• Jon McGregor’s “If It Keeps On Raining” [Booktrust, PDF]
• Alison Macleod’s “The Will Writer” [Booktrust, DOC]
• Annalee Newitz’s “Twilight of the Eco-Terrorist” (Apex Magazine)
• Frank O’Connor’s “First Confession” (Ireland Information)
• Helen Oyeyemi’s “My Daughter the Racist” [Booktrust, PDF]
• Amy Sackville’s “Signalling” (Untitled Books)
• Saki’s “Filboid Studge” (East of the Web)
• Ekaterina Sedia’s “Seas of the World” (World SF Blog)
• Angi Becker Stevens’s “Even If You Were Here” (The Collagist)
• A.C. Tillyer’s “L  is for Labyrinth” (publisher lender)
• David Vann’s “Ichthyology” (author’s website)
• Eliza Victoria’s “Parallel” (Expanded Horizons)
• David Foster Wallace’s “Incarnations of Burned Children” (Esquire)
• Lucy Wood’s “Of Mothers and Little People” (The Telegraph)
• Evie Wyld’s “Menzies Meat” (Untitled Books)

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I also asked for other people’s recommendations on Twitter last night, and here’s what they said:

@ActuallyAisha recommended the Caine Prize shortlist, especially Rotimi Babatunde’s “Bombay’s Republic” [PDF link].

@bellaserval recommended Joel Golby’s “And the Dead Came Back to Life”.

@T_A_Fletcher recommended Paraxis.

@nikeshshukla recommended www.theshortstory.org.uk.

@beaglelover7 recommended Suffolk Book League‘s New Beginnings anthology [PDF link].

@GigiWoolf recommended Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

@MandyBoat recommended the Bloomsbury Short Stories sampler.

@kevmcveigh recommended Lewis Shiner’s stories.

@JinxedJester recommended George Saunders’ “Adams” [podcast]

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Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, and I hope you’ll find plenty to enjoy amongst these stories.