Short Story Collections

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2022 edited by John Joseph Adams and Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun) offers their choice of twenty outstanding science fiction and fantasy stories for the year. I was excited to sample several authors who were new to me and also to note the number of female authors who were included, like Elizabeth Bear, Meg Elison, Peng Shepherd (The Cartographers), and Maria Dong (whose forthcoming book titled Liar, Dreamer, Thief is already getting much buzz). The stories, like “I was a Teenage Space Jockey” or “The Cloud Lake Unicorn” or “Let All the Children Boogie” were entertaining and imaginative and often rather literary. If you like the science fiction genre, be sure to also look for past collections gathered by Gardner Dozois annually since the mid-1980s.  

THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE 2022 edited by Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins) and Steph Cha contains twenty short stories published the previous year which they consider the best examples of mystery and suspense. Topics range from a girl detective to a serial killer sociopath to crime/time travel. Authors include Chicago native Tracy Clark, S.A. Cosby, Lauren Groff and many others. The tales I sampled were a bit dark relative to the cozier mysteries which I usually read, but they had me guessing and engaged. A long list of Honorable Mentions as well as some descriptive Contributor Notes are included. Either of these collections is worth perusing, particularly if you are someone who is looking for a well-written, but short, contribution to a favorite genre. As Cha notes in his introduction, “we read to get educated and feel connected as well as to escape and forget.”

Short Stories ...

THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR 2022 edited by Sara Paretsky (author of the bestselling V.I. Warshawski series) contains roughly five hundred pages with selections by renowned authors Including Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, and Colson Whitehead. Similar collections are published annually, but I felt as though these selections were more stories than mysteries. Yes, they were very well-written and there were surprises and twists, but the focus seemed more psychological than action adventure. The first story, “Kiss of Life” (by Doug Allyn) lasts for over forty pages and essentially circles back to its beginning. “White Chocolate” (by Jerome Charyn) and “Sleigh Bells for the Hayride” (by Keith Lee Morris) both sound appealing, but the characters (including a woman who kidnaps her own grandchild) were not. There are notes at the beginning and end of each story about the author’s background and creative process, but (in the preview at least) they blend together and that distracts from the reading enjoyment. Again, certainly well-written contributions, but overall not as diverting or entertaining as I had expected.  

Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19

ALONE TOGETHER edited by Jennifer Haupt was just released last month with the intent of supporting independent booksellers in need through the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.  The submissions of poems, essays and interviews were all donated by dozens of authors (Kwame Alexander, Meg Waite Clayton, Jamie Ford, Nikki Giovanni, Jean Kwok, to name just a few). This collection is subtitled “Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19” and it so seems appropriate to chronicle and share these experiences, especially today as some of our students and our faculty and staff begin the journey of blending in-person and remote learning. Haupt has divided the writings (many of which are only a page or two) into 5 sections: What Now? Grieve, Comfort, Connect and Do Not Stop. Library Journal described ALONE TOGETHER as “A testament to the power of story in times of hardship and crisis.” Last night I read several selections and rather than being saddened, I was actually very buoyed by the uplifting perspective and feeling that we are indeed all in this together. I could definitely see this text being used to prompt students’ own reflections, particularly as we move forward in the school year. Yale University Press will publish A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life under Lockdown next month. Please contact us with recommended titles of other collections related to COVID times.