Top 16 Literary Short Story Collections

Short stories get less shelf glory than novels, and these collections quietly deserve more. Some are slim, some sprawling, and a few changed how people write.

1. 1
   Dubliners

   James Joyce's 1914 portrait of ordinary Dublin lives, ending with the towering story 'The Dead'.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Her Body and Other Parties

   Carmen Maria Machado's 2017 genre-bending feminist horror and fantasy stories.
   897pts
3. 3
   Ficciones

   Jorge Luis Borges's 1944 labyrinths of libraries, mirrors and infinite books.
   636pts
4. 4
   Jesus' Son

   Denis Johnson's 1992 woozy, luminous stories of addicts and drifters.
   538pts
5. 5
   Cathedral

   Carver's 1983 collection, warmer and more expansive than his earlier work, including the title story.
   538pts
6. 6
   A Good Man Is Hard to Find

   Flannery O'Connor's 1955 Southern Gothic collection of grace arriving through violence.
   538pts
7. 7
   Runaway

   Alice Munro's 2004 collection of women at moments of quiet, devastating change.
   538pts
8. 8
   Drown

   Junot Díaz's 1996 debut of stories about Dominican immigrant life in New Jersey.
   538pts
9. 9
   Nine Stories

   J. D. Salinger's 1953 collection including 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish'.
   418pts
10. 10
    Birds of America

    Lorrie Moore's 1998 collection of sharp, sad and funny stories of American women.
    418pts
11. 11
    Friday Black

    Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's 2018 satirical, dystopian stories about race and consumerism.
    418pts
12. 12
    Dear Life

    Alice Munro's 2012 final collection, ending in autobiographical 'finale' pieces.
    418pts
13. 13
    Olive Kitteridge

    Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer-winning 2008 linked stories around a blunt Maine schoolteacher.
    418pts
14. 14
    A Manual for Cleaning Women

    Lucia Berlin's posthumously rediscovered stories drawn from her chaotic, working life.
    0pts
15. 15
    Pastoralia

    George Saunders's 1999 satirical stories of absurd workplaces and strange futures.
    0pts
16. 16
    The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

    Sherman Alexie's 1993 stories of life on and off the Spokane reservation.
    0pts

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