Christopher Barzak

Your favorite collections

In a recent post on short stories, one my local booksellers (hi, Amy!) said her store would put up an end-cap display of collections, and would take suggestions for which collections could be interesting. So I’ve decided to ask here, where many of the people who visit this journal are readers and writers of short stories, what collections of stories you’d include in that display.

The beginning of a list:

Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link

Map of Dreams, by M. Rickert,

Pastoralia, by George Saunders

Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by Z.Z. Packer

Your suggestions?

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15 responses to “Your favorite collections”

  1. Haddayr Avatar
    Haddayr

    Twenty Epics!

    Reply
  2. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    Drown, by Junot Diaz

    For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, Nathan Englander

    Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

    Black Tickets, Jayne Anne Phillips

    The Martian Chronicles or The October Country, Bradbury

    *off to think of more*

    Reply
  3. Tim Pratt Avatar
    Tim Pratt

    Something by Theodore Sturgeon — ideally whichever volume of the Complete Stories is newest (I think that’s The Nail and the Oracle now).

    The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron

    In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss.

    Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop

    Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages

    (I could go on… and, ahem, I had a collection come out last year, for what that’s worth)

    Reply
  4. Matt Cheney Avatar
    Matt Cheney

    Not a definitive list by any means, but a few favorites that come to mind and haven’t already been mentioned…

    Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano

    The Death of Picasso by Guy Davenport

    The Avram Davidson Treasury

    Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany

    All Around Atlantis by Deborah Eisenberg

    White Walls by Tatyana Tolstaya

    Reply
  5. Gwenda Avatar
    Gwenda

    Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett and Black Glass by KJF.

    Reply
  6. Gwenda Avatar
    Gwenda

    Oh and I just reread Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories — so wonderfully odd. All the others I’m thinking of that haven’t been named are out of print.

    Reply
  7. Dave Schwartz Avatar
    Dave Schwartz

    Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen

    Collected Fictions, Borges

    The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith

    Reply
  8. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Rashomon & 17 Other Stories – Ryunosuke Akutagawa

    Bradbury Stories – Ray Bradbury

    Novelties & Souvenirs – John Crowley

    Twenty Grand & Other Tales of Love and Money – Rebecca Curtis

    Fragile Things + Smoke & Mirrors – Neil Gaiman

    Casting the Runes & Other Ghost Stories – M.R. James

    The Mark Of The Beast & Other Fantastical Tales – Rudyard Kipling

    White Time + Black Juice + Red Spikes – Margo Lanagan

    The Man From the Diogenes Club + The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club – Kim Newman

    High Lonesome: Selected Short Stories 1966-2006 – Joyce Carol Oates

    St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves – Karen Russell

    Her Smoke Rose Up Forever – James Tiptree, Jr.

    Innocents Abroad + Starwater Strains – Gene Wolfe

    A few I would have suggested already have been; there are some really good suggestions already. My problem – as someone mentioned above – is trying to get away from all the out of print collections I’d happily recommend without reservation. Anyway, all of the above were published in the last couple of years, and, I’d like to think, are all still in print.

    Reply
  9. Niall Avatar
    Niall

    Too … many … choices …

    The big retrospectives Subterranean’s been doing — Sterling’s Ascendancies, Willis’ The Winds Of Marble Arch, The Best of Lucius Shepard, etc.

    Vinland The Dream and The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson, at least until Subterranean get around to doing a retrospective for him.

    Axiomatic and Luminous by Greg Egan

    Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

    Some Paul di Filippo — probably Ribofunk and Strange Trades.

    Skinny-Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by Alan DeNiro

    Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

    The complete Angela Carter — don’t know if this exists in the US, but there’s a UK one-volume edition of all her short story collections

    Breathmoss and Other Exhalations, Voyages by Starlight and Past Magic by Ian MacLeod (but especially the first of those)

    Saffron and Brimstone by Elizabeth Hand

    Mothers and Other Monsters by Maureen McHugh (there must be enough uncollected McHugh stories for a second book, surely?)

    Looking for Jake by China Mieville

    The Whole Story and Other Stories, and Other Stories and Other Stories, both by Ali Smith

    Traces and Phase Space by Stephen Baxter

    Some Emshwiller — I Live With You for starters.

    Reply
  10. fusakota Avatar
    fusakota

    The Lilac Bus by Maeve Binchy.

    Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami.

    Crackling Mountain and Other Stories by Osamu Dazai.

    The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

    Reply
  11. Yoshio Avatar
    Yoshio

    The Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford
    The Emporium by Adam Johnson
    The Mother Garden by Robin Romm
    Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder
    Red Ant House by Anne Cummins
    Things That Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier
    Bad Haircut by Tom Perrotta
    Plus part of Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling or his A Good Old Fashioned Future
    Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Club +The All-Girl Football Team by Lewis Nordan
    In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips
    Love in Vain by Lewis Shiner
    Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard
    The Light at the End of the Universe by Terry Carr (if it’s still available)
    Maybe I would like to hide some of them from the public eyes. Those are my treasure.

    Reply
  12. Christopher Barzak Avatar
    Christopher Barzak

    Yoshio, I love your list! We have the same taste in short stories! The only other person that I personally know who has read Lewis Nordan is Kelly Link. I absolutely LOVE his stories. And I just read Robin Romm’s collection “The Mother Garden” last month. It was wonderful.

    Reply
  13. scott snyder Avatar
    scott snyder

    yoshio – we have the same taste, too! from romm to bradford and beyond. thanks so much for including voodoo heart. means a lot. scott

    Reply
  14. Robin Romm Avatar
    Robin Romm

    Hi Yoshio and Scott and Chris,
    Thanks for reading the Mother Garden, all. I’m so happy you liked it. Chris – sorry I fell off the face of the earth. I did read One For Sorrow. What an odd and beautiful story. I’ll write more to you soon.
    And I loved Scott’s book, Voodoo Heart.
    Also, I’m into Gina Berriault these days. “The Stone Boy” is one of my favorite stories. And of course, everything by Flannery O’Connor and Andre Dubus.

    Robin

    Reply
  15. Christopher Barzak Avatar
    Christopher Barzak

    Hey Robin! Sorry I fell off the face of the earth too! Thank you for the compliments! I’ll get in touch with you again soon!

    I am a huge Flannery O’Connor fan too. She can be real mean, but her stories are simply like nothing else.

    Reply

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