short fiction
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What’s in a Name
Over at Matter, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gives us a new piece of short fiction: My father’s first child was a girl. He said she was a loud squalling baby who grasped his finger with surprising strength, and he knew it meant…
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Calling Freddy
Michael Chabon has a short story over on Tablet; in it, he negotiates the acquaintance of a boy and his crippled neighbor: There was no menace or queerness in his manner, none at all. Mischief, yes. And the illicit sharing…
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The Lower Forty-Eight
Dave Eggers has a new story up at the New Yorker: There is proud happiness, happiness born of doing admirable things in the light of day, years of good work, and afterward being tired and content and surrounded by family…
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Attention Spans Fall, Short Fiction Rises
That is not to say that normal books will decline. Of course they won’t. There will always be a place for big, satisfying stories to burrow through. But it seems that the rise of short stories are partly caused by…
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The Very Short Story
In the Atlantic, Lydia Davis deconstructs two drafts of an early short story, showing how even something as minimal as a sentence or a paragraph can have a narrative arc.
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Harvey’s Heartache
Stephen King doesn’t always write horror-less contemporary fiction, but when he does, there’s usually still a twist. Over at the New Yorker, “Harvey’s Dream” has been resurrected from the archives: Then one day you made the mistake of looking over…
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Nothing New Under the Billboard
With its clean, careful shots and enigmatic plot resolutions, Mad Men tends to inhabit a liminal narrative space, as if the same rules of decorum that govern its romanticized 60s society extend their authority to the show’s refined formal characteristics.…
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This Week in Short Fiction
May is Short Story Month! In honor of StoryADay’s second annual celebration, Flavorwire writers offered their recommendations of five stories worth a read, from Calvino to O’Connor. On Monday, Gawker held a live-chat interview with Rivka Galchen about her new…
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Fatal Short Stories
Depictions of death in short stories can challenge even seasoned writers. John McDonough, writing in the Colorado Review, explains why: The immediacy of the death of a loved one offers rich emotional possibilities, but ones that are remarkably complicated. Mine…
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The Rumpus Interview with Peter Orner
Writer and Rumpus columnist Peter Orner chats about compression in his work, the reappearance of characters, self-deception, and the stories we hold close.
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Peter Orner’s Favorite Short Stories
I’ll say it: [“Idiots First”] is the most moving American story ever written. (Until I change my mind.) For online magazine Ozy, Rumpus columnist Peter Orner collects some of his very favorite short stories. They range from North American classics by…