As my third book and first short story collection No One Knows about Us is making its way into the world soon, I was inspired to make a list of some of my favourite short story collections.
I LOVE reading short stories and have a pretty big collection of…collections. As a writer, putting together a good short story can be a real challenge. They are almost like a job interview—be as concise and compelling as possible! Make an impact in something that might take less than 20 minutes to read! So, I have a great respect for writers who are masters of this craft.
Here are a few of my favourites.
*****
Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome, by Megan Gail Coles
Coles’ writing is so sharp and funny and makes you ache in empathy. These stories are loosely connected and take you around the world, where the setting itself often feels like a character.
*
Barreling Forward, by Eva Crocker
Wonderfully raw, evocative stories with details that draw the reader in. A collection rich with honest depictions of modern relationships where the seemingly mundane becomes extraordinary.
*
How to Get Along with Women, by Elisabeth de Mariaffi
This is one of those collections where you get the feeling this is a writer who can do anything. The stories are funny and unique and so smart. This is a collection I keep in my “pick up and read again” pile.
*
Dig, by Terry Doyle
Doyle knows how to show the beauty in everyday humanity, in all its strength and gritty fragility. I often think about the guy in “Hammerhead” when I’m taking an evening walk around town.
*
Open, by Lisa Moore
This was the first time I’d read anything by Lisa Moore and I was hooked immediately by how strongly she can move the reader in just a with few words. She immediately became one of my favourite authors.
*
How to Pronounce Knife, by Souvankham Thammavonsa
These stories are spectacular and moving. The characters and relationship are visceral and achingly beautiful in their realities. It’s no wonder this collection won the Giller Prize in 2020.
*
Floating with the Dead, by Yasuko Thanh
Rich, fascinating stories that carry the reader into vastly different worlds. I read this almost ten years ago and still think about it often.
*
Send More Tourists, The Last Ones were Delicious, by Tracey Waddleton
Just a fabulous collection of daring, funny, wicked tales. Waddleton is a master of pushing her characters and plots to the edge. The first story, “It Lunged,” is only a page or two long and made me actually jump and audibly yelp.
*
Learn more about No One Knows About Us:
Award-winning author Bridget Canning returns with an incisive and unsettling collection that considers what it means to be good—or to be a villain—in our relationships with others.
No One Knows about Us is a collection of short fiction about how we find connection in a disconnected world. Relationships exist under the wire, and conversations and revelations occur in secret pockets, both literally and physically. The characters conduct secret acts of vengeance, kindness, and vigilantism motivated by their hidden yearnings, grudges, losses, fears, and fixations.