Shorter Stories

[Aurelia West]

I recently finished up Heating and Cooling, a book of micro memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly, the current poet laureate of Mississippi, and I thought it was incredibly interesting how she managed to tell complete stories in so little words. While some stories lasted a couple pages, others lasted less than twenty words. Though each experience was brief, I still felt like there was a beginning, middle, and end enough for me to take something away from each one.

When I read books either with short chapters, or collections with short stories, I feel like I get through them quicker because of how they're divvied up. Does anyone else feel a similar way? Also, what is your opinion on short stories, and do you have any favorites to recommend?

[Shiloh Adlar]

I also feel the same way. I prefer shorter chapters simply because it allows me to read more for longer periods of time. When I'm reading say, Lord of the Rings, I find it more difficult to sit down and read because I know if something comes up, I can't just stop reading in the middle of a chapter. Therefore, I may wait a long period of time before picking it up again. But with shorter chapters, I know I can pick the book up start reading and put it down easily if something comes up or it's getting late and I really need to sleep because I know the end of the chapter will be coming soon.

Don't get me wrong. I can read for hours, but time is so crucial for me during the school year that it's hard for me to just sit down and read a book anytime I want.

I do love short stories. A few that I can think of immediately are Babylon Revisted by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway, and of course almost anything by Edgar Allen Poe. If you want something more contemporary, I highly recommend A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li.

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

I don't often read short stories, but I really liked Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. It's the story that the film Arrival was based on. As a former linguistics major, I love anything to do with language, so I really enjoyed it. I haven't yet read Ted Chiang's other stories in the book though. Another short story I enjoyed was Neil Gaiman's Chivalry.

One of my favourite authors, Robin Hobb, has written some short stories set in her Realm of the Elderlings world. I've been meaning to get round to them for some time.

[Bull J. Johnson]

I feel the same way. I prefer smaller chapter books or books with short stories in it, because of that I started a new book that has a lot of short stories in it. Some of these stories are from Latin America, which encompasses Mexico and South America. One of the stories is about a priest that was named El Dorado. This priest covered his body everyday with gold dust and then washed it off in a lake every night.

[Shiloh Adlar]

I finished another book with a collection of short stories based around African American history and oral storytelling. It's called The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia C. McKissack. The stories are meant to be told at the time where it's neither night or day. Somewhere around that time of twilight. The stories are meant to be chilling and to a young child, I definitely think they would be. The beginning stories in the book start off during the days of slavery in the US and then through the time of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The first three stories are very chilling because every story in this book is based off of real stories and events.

My favorite story in the collection was called The Woman in the Snow and this brings up about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott. What I loved the most about this story is that it talks of having compassion for everyone no matter what their race (or difference from yourself). All the stories in this collection, though horror stories for children, teach powerful lessons about love, compassion, understanding, conquering fears and justice. Even if it is meant for middle school readers, I think it is an excellent book for all to read. The stories are short enough to put down every now and then or to share around a campfire if you like that sort of thing.

[Prof. Maxim Trevelyan]

I also do not read short stories very often, but there is a collection that I hold close to my heart, Jigs & Reels by Joanne Harris, the author who also wrote Chocolat. It is a collection of very short (around a page and half) to semi-long (20 pages) stories about different elements that blend urban life with the magical, the haunting or just the outrageous.

One of my favorite stories in there is a retelling of Cinderella, from the point of view of the actress that plays one of the evil stepsisters in a play. It is quite poignant, offering an another point of view that makes you think whether the original story was even correct of if it is a case of “winners write the history”.