What are your favorite recently published short stories?

And yet I wonder if I am starting to react against the genre of short stories, from reading so many of them at once. I suspect that short stories often do these gimmicky things, or are rather sententious, and if you only read one then this doesn't strike you.

i've had the same though every time i read short story collections

I don't want to give the impression that I don't like short stories. Some of my most loved books are short story collections. But I'm having a hard time remembering the last time I read a new collection of stories that really blew me away. I guess the last time was probably Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, and that was over 20 years ago. I think maybe has to do with death of the commercial short story. I think the golden age of short stories roughly coincides with the period when writing stories could be a very lucrative career.

I may be wrong but I get the feeling nowadays that stories are mostly written by members of the literary crowd to impress other members of the literary crowd.

pinefox, I'm loving these summaries & reactions. I often don't love the format either, but I'll recommend Kate Folk's debut collection 'Out There' from last year. I think of her as similar to Ted Chiang in that each story has a clear concept based on some sort of surreal or sci-fi element, but as a means to explore human relationships (where it seems Chiang is more literally interested in AI/technology/aliens in a philosophical sense).

Now that I think of it, the last new story collection that I loved was probably Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You.

o.nate, I have read that collection a few times and know it well. I'm a bit surprised that July doesn't feature in this Penguin book.

I'm most glad that you and poster Jordan appreciated my posts about the collection. re Jordan's post, I do note that there seems to be a strand of short story which is high-concept (like Chiang and seemingly Folk), against a strand that is the opposite, more humanist slice of life if you like (Carver presumably fits here - unless we think Carver has high concepts of his own).

Hilary Mantel read her story "The School of English" on the LRB podcast in 2015. It's a beautifully written story about a horrible situation.

xp I enjoyed your posts too, thanks. As for Carver, I'd like to re-read some of his Lish-edited stories vs. their unedited originals (some of which appear in posthumous collections, or so I'm told).

That would be a good idea, Dow. Carver now seems to me well worth going back to.

I am pretty sure I read that Mantel story - it was about migrant workers living in a house in London? Afraid I don't recall more.

I did too, pinefox. Now I wanna buy this anthology.

George Saunders' 'Sticks' (1994) is a one-page sketch about a father who hangs things on a pole outside his house. I hope this isn't the best Saunders can do.

Saunders is a great writer, Lincoln in the Bardo an outstanding work and recent A Swim in a Pond in the Rain an interesting short story masterclass

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline also a very good read