

Imagine a conversation between a salesman pushing a simulation experience on a vulnerable female.ĭrama unfolds when the protagonist asks for one last visit with her deceased mother. In the awesome “Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867,” Fu bends genres by constructing her ideas through dialogue. Fu’s fantastical new collection lives up to the hype of her previous works. From haunted dolls and fatal accidents, to sprouting wings, Kim Fu writes with excitement and invention in her new short story collection, “Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century.”Ī Seattle-based author, Fu has written the novels “The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore” and “For Today I Am a Boy.” Both received critical acclaim and multiple award nominations “For Today I Am a Boy” won the Edmund White Award. So get your TBR lists ready, because you’re going to want to add all of these books to your to-read pile right away.Views expressed in the column are the author’s own. Basically, these short story collections are doing everything, and you’re going to love them. There’s plenty of that here on this list. Literary fiction is heavily represented on this list, but there are short stories in plenty of other genres as well! Love speculative fiction? Of course you do. We couldn’t possibly cover them all, so if your fave didn’t make this list, no worries! It’s still amazing.Īs for the ones that are on this list, these are the 20 must-read short story collections that you’re going to love, no matter what genres you normally gravitate towards. In fact, there are so many great short story collections this year, that it was hard to narrow it down to just 20 must-reads. If you’re a fan of short stories, you’re in luck, because 2022 has been an excellent year for short story collections.

In just a small amount of pages, authors of short stories are able to create entire worlds, depict characters who feel real, and evoke deep emotions. In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover-and in some cases even make and unmake-the various uncharted parts of existence. From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that-a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.Ī good short story has an incredible amount of power.
