Favorite Non-Erotic Short Story Authors

[Chicklet]

The other thread made me wonder -

most of us here write short stories, not as many novels. Which short-story authors do you read and enjoy the most?

Me? O'Henry!

Chicklet

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Here at Lit, you mean?

Ahem! I don't usually read the non-erotic short stories here...

 

[Guest]

the brits are the masters

Jeffrey Archer's collection "A Twist in the Tale" is very fine.

Roald Dahl's short stories are well written also.

And Chicklet... I didn't recognize you with the Lois Lane Look.

b

 

[deliciously_naughty]

spider robinson all the way

 

[jshelbourne]

Theodore Sturgeon. That's number 1.

Ernest Hemingway and (sometimes) William Faulkner. Hemingway puts so much between the lines; so does Faulkner, but there's so damn many more lines it's harder to notice.

John Collier.

There are a couple more authors who are really really good, but they're alive and I haven't read enough of their stuff...I'm blanking on their names.

 

[Weird Harold]

Which short-story authors do you read and enjoy the most?

I don't read short story collections by single authors very often, so I'm more inclined to choose an anthology by the editor that complied it.

The late Marion Zimmer Bradley was very good at inding new talent to include in the anthologies she edited.

I think I have more anthologies co-edited by Martin H. Greenberg than by any other anthology editor -- it seems that any project he participates in turns out a good anthology.

 

[M.A.Thompson]

John Cheever.

Alice Walker has also written some wonderful short stories.

 

[jfinn]

James Thurber and Saki (HH Munro) are favorites, but it's more individual short stories I remember rather than the authors. Irwin Shaw's The Girls In There Summer Dresses and Margery Allingham's The Wink are two that come to mind.

Isn't it interesting that most of us have not picked contemporary writers in this genre. I wonder why that is?

Jayne

 

[jfinn]

I meant of course, The Girls In Their Summer Dresses Their Summer Dresses

That'll teach me not to preview my posts.

Jayne

 

[Chicklet]

spider robinson all the way

I didn't even know spider robinson wrote shorts!

will have to look in to it!

 

[jshelbourne]

There are the various Callahan's collections, of course (collected in "Callahan Chronicals" I think), but I'm particularly fond of an obscure collection called "Melancholy Elephants".

The first collection of his that I bought was called "Antinomy."

Ah. Here's a website that lists them:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Spider_Robinson.htm

Turns out there are two in the last couple of years, "By Any Other Name" and "God is an Iron: And Other Stories".

I've also enjoyed reading his monthly column in the Globe & Mail newspaper, but I don't get the Globe, so it's whenever I happen to see it in a restaurant in the morning.

 

[Chicklet]

does anyone read ray bradbury? I really liked the story he wrote about the planet where it always rained...can't remember the title...

Chicklet

 

[TheEarl]

Iain M Banks did a good collection: The State of the Art. IMHO no-one can beat Roald Dahl for his amazing short stories. Especially Lamb to the Slaughter. I read that in English when I was 11 and I remembered it enough to look it up again when I was 18. Completely original.

The Earl

 

[karmadog]

Hemingway, of course. Eudora Welty, Raymond Carver, I've read a couple by Annie Proulx that were fantastic, and TC Boyle is a hoot.

 

[Natural Born Eros]

Again, I'd have to agree with all the suggestions here. I have another name to throw, reluctantly, into the mix. IMHO, she creates a realistic character as well as anybody, although her stories are a bit samey. Well, at the risk of sounding like a middle aged woman, I like Maeve Binchy.

 

[Chicklet]

IMHO no-one can beat Roald Dahl for his amazing short stories. Especially Lamb to the Slaughter.

more that I'm going to have to find. this thread is a treasure.