36 of Your Favorite Short Story Collections By Women
This Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Flatiron Books.
The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris. In “One of Those Life Things,” a young woman struggles to say the right thing at her best friend’s abortion. In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.
From Roxane Gay’s wonderfully titled Difficult Women to the hilarious collection American Housewife by Helen Ellis, women are writing fantastic short story collections. We try to read them all, since we look forward to reading about as many types of women as possible, which makes our list of favorites excellently long! We asked you to tell us your favorite short story collections by women and you answered. Here are your 36 favorites: Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due The Safety of Objects by A.M. Homes Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke Difficult Women by Roxane Gay Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer Emerald City by Jennifer Egan The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker Happiness, Like Water: Stories by Chinelo Okparanta What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi Bad behavior by Mary Gaitskill Get in Trouble by Kelly Link Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara Short and Strange by Betsy Nelson Birds of America by Lorrie Moore Sweet Talk by Stephanie Vaughn The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter The Complete Stories by Alice Walker Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal Mother Aegypt and Other Stories by Kage Baker What are your favorite short story collections by women? Find even more of our coverage on the short story here.
The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris. In “One of Those Life Things,” a young woman struggles to say the right thing at her best friend’s abortion. In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.
From Roxane Gay’s wonderfully titled Difficult Women to the hilarious collection American Housewife by Helen Ellis, women are writing fantastic short story collections. We try to read them all, since we look forward to reading about as many types of women as possible, which makes our list of favorites excellently long! We asked you to tell us your favorite short story collections by women and you answered. Here are your 36 favorites: Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due The Safety of Objects by A.M. Homes Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke Difficult Women by Roxane Gay Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer Emerald City by Jennifer Egan The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker Happiness, Like Water: Stories by Chinelo Okparanta What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi Bad behavior by Mary Gaitskill Get in Trouble by Kelly Link Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara Short and Strange by Betsy Nelson Birds of America by Lorrie Moore Sweet Talk by Stephanie Vaughn The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter The Complete Stories by Alice Walker Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal Mother Aegypt and Other Stories by Kage Baker What are your favorite short story collections by women? Find even more of our coverage on the short story here.
