Short Story Writers

Day 5 of National Short Story week and I wanted to share my favourite authors of short stories. Here goes...(in no particular order)

Elizabeth Taylor - have recently acquired the new complete collection of her short stories and can't wait to tuck in.

Raymond Carver - master of terse prose, but I learned recently that his work may have been heavily edited. Will be looking into this and further post coming...

Penelope Lively - queen of the short story in my opinion. Her stories linger long after reading and often deliver shocking surprises. Her collection 'Pack of cards' contains one of the most disturbing ghost stories I've ever read.

Kate Atkinson - have only found one collection 'Not the end of the world', which is great fun and packs an emotional punch in many of the stories.

Patrick Gale - have not yet read any of his novels but loved his two collections of short stories 'Gentleman's Relish' and 'Dangerous Pleasures'

Alice Munro - what can you say about Alice other than pure genius. Apparently she is still writing (now in her 80's) and a new collection recently released.

Helen Simpson - wonderful mixture of stories often funny or terribly sad.

Nicholas Royle - not for the easily shocked, but the most creative short story writer I've read.

Tessa Hadley - a real advocate for the short story (see earlier post on Tessa's Masterclass)

John Burnside - his stories linger for sometime.

Katherine Mansfield - have only read a couple of stories and must get hold of a collection.

Anthologies are a good way to sample lots of writers in one hit. I've really enjoyed the Penguin collections of Modern Women's Short Stories (vol I and II edited by Susan Hill).

There are many more writers to sample, but always so little time...sigh. Please share your favourites...