Monday, October 27, 2008

Short Story Authors I've Liked



In no particular order, these are short story authors I've liked a lot:

Ring Lardner (master of the form)
John O'Hara (under-rated author)
Bobbie Ann Mason
T.C. Boyle (but his 8 pound story collection is just too heavy.)
Eudora Welty (wonder if I would still like them though.)
J.D. Salinger
Turgenev

I used to like Saki as a teen, and Poe of course. So many comic book stories really qualify as short stories too.

hmm, umm, list is shorter than I thought it would be. I used to always buy those Pushcart Annuals of short stories but haven't in a while. And the Best American Short Story collection. Although I've read good stories in the New Yorker, so often I'm left with the huh, what was that about?

Any writer you'd like to put on the list?

What about you? Favorite short story authors?

11 comments:

RHSteeleOH said...

The last short story book I've read is "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link. A strange wonderful collection of odds and ends.

A Wanderer said...

Hmm...in no particular order:
I love the short stories of Oscar Wilde, particularly "The Happy Prince" I believe it is called.
Poe is on my list as well.
Robert Louis Stevenson.
It's been years since I've read any of these though. I haven't regularly read many short stories since I began college. I have been reading some in a free pdf issue of a magazine of "Bizarro fiction" called "Bust Down the Door and Eat All The Chickens" that I've really enjoyed (I'm considering submitting some of mine to them in the future). Particularly "Laughers" by Anderson Prunty. I'd like to read more of his stuff. There's another one called, I think, "Letter From Dog To Cat" that I absolutely love.
I could list a barrage of comic book stories I love. And fairy tales.
I'm sure there are more, but my brain isn't functioning at full capacity right now.

Linda Davick said...

Oh, this is fun. Let's see. Raymond Carver. I remember a story by George Saunders called "Sea Oak." I tore it out of the NYer years ago, but I don't think I've ever read another story of his that I like as much. Ellen Gilchrist. It's been a while, but Gogol of "The Nose" fame. Woody Allen and Steve Martin, too!

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

I read a lot of fiction as a kid and a teen, but now I mostly read nonfiction. I'm not sure why. Maybe my brain doesn't process/appreciate it properly. I remember finishing The snows of Kilimanjaro without a clue as to what was going on, and disappointed that the freeze dried leopard (mentioned at the beginning) never showed up.

Anonymous said...

Ditto on Raymond Carver. Sherman Alexie. Chitra Divakaruni (who taught me English 101 many years ago at Berkeley!) Faulkner.

Anonymous said...

I've read a lot of O'Hara stories and novels (The Lockwood Concern). I like the Great American Short Story collection. I read them over and over.

Speaking of short stories, you might enjoy Sophia's letter: http://blogs.provost.org/grammyandbompie/

A Wanderer said...

I recently had to read a Raymond Carver story ("Beginners") for one of my classes. Beginners was actually his original draft, the published, final version, heavily re-worked by his editor came out as "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." You can read both versions online, on, I think, the website of the New Yorker.

I personally preferred "Beginners" by far.

Anonymous said...

I understand, Namowal. I have a hard time getting into fiction, but I am embarrassed to admit it. I'm not sure why, exactly. I sort of get impatient. I sometimes find true stories more strangely surreal.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

I agree Stray- and I like biographies for that reason. Any "this crazy/weird thing happened to me" bio, at least.

Anonymous said...

Sally, What is the photo? Marvelous....Kate

Sally said...

I love love love all your posts. Thank you. I've been out all day, getting my haircut, at the dump, (two separate places), at Obama HQs, at lunch, at two feed stores, at the framers, at city market, at the wine store, at another hardware store, geez, and all in one day. Plus I saw 15 turkeys, yay hooray, this morning, walking in a line. I always thought that song "Staying Alive" was "Stay in a Line." I got to talk chickens at the feed store.

I can look up books/writers you've mentioned at the library without even going to amazon so I'll be busy later this week with that. The Lee Child novel I'm reading is lowly.