>As I noted recently, Dan Wickett at Emerging Writers Network has declared May to be Short Story Month. It seems like a great idea to me and also a great incentive to delve into a number of the story collections that have accumulated around here. Now Dan has provided more details of what he’s planning to do and what he’s going to be reading. I think I’m going to take a slightly different approach. I’d like to actually read all the stories in each collection I’ve chosen, although whether that will be possible remains to be seen. I’ve been pretty agressive and I’ve picked 20 books and if I get through half of them I’ll be happy. If I can also read the stories in a few literary magazines, too, then I’ll be ecstatic. Here’s my list:
Moral Disorder, Margaret Atwood (Doubleday)
Rescue Missions, Frederick Busch (Norton)
Drastic, Maud Casey (Wm. Morrow)
In the Gloaming, Alice Elliott Dark (Scribner)
Winter Roads, Summer Fields, Marjorie Dorner (Milkweed)
Spit Baths, Greg Downs (Georgia)
Twilight of the Superheroes, Deborah Eisenberg (FSG)
Lucky Girls, Nell Freudenberger (Harper)
History on a Personal Note, Binnie Kirshenbaum (Ecco)
Yellow, Don Lee (Norton)
Fishing the Sloe-Black River, Colum McCann (Picador)
How Animals Mate, Daniel Mueller (Overlook)
The View From Castle Rock, Alice Munro (Knopf)
Runaway, Alice Munro (Knopf)
Esther Stories, Peter Orner (Mariner)
The Language of Elk, Benjamin Percy (Carnegie Mellon)
A Day, A Night, Another Day, Summer, Christine Schutt (Harcourt)
Get Down, Asali Solomon (FSG)
Things Kept, Things Left Behind, Jim Tomlinson (Iowa)
Letting Loose the Hounds, Brady Udall (Washington Square)
>I love the different approach! And you’ve nabbed some of my favorite writers and collections from the past few years of reading – Percy for sure, Udall’s story Wig within Letting Loose is one of the most powerful four page stories I’ve ever read. Also loved Tomlinson’s collection, the stories of Greg Downs that I’ve read and Mueller’s How Animals Mate too! Looking forward to the Garstang takes on these.