6 Splendid Short Story Collections for 2018

The Love of A Bad Man, by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Melbourne, Australia-based writer Laura Elizabeth Woollett lets her imagination roam across history and the globe, lingering especially in the darkest places, in a collection she describes as “fictional imaginings of the real-life wives and girlfriends of notorious ‘bad’ men.” Her narrators include Eva Braun and Myra Hindley, the wife of a British murderer, once called “the most hated woman in Britain.”

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson 
Speaking of the Best American Short Stories, the title story of this collection by acclaimed fiction master Denis Johnson appeared in the 2015 edition, and it was a stunner. The dreamlike tale contains a series of vignettes involving an older gentleman reflecting on his life, incorporating folklore and unexpected humor. “This morning I was assailed by such sadness at the velocity of life—the distance I’ve traveled from my own youth, the persistence of the old regrets, the new regrets, the ability of failure to freshen itself in novel forms—that I almost crashed the car,” Johnson writes. Johnson died in May of 2017, but left this last book for his many fans to relish.

Back Talk, by Danielle Lazarin (February 6)
Danielle Lazarin’s debut collection features stories of marriage, families, love, and loss that emit a vibe so low-key and unrushed at the outset that they startle when their depth of characterization, insight, and feeling dawns. Take “Appetite,” about fifteen-year-old Claudia, who has just lost her mother to lung cancer, and meets an infinitely charming young man, George, at a party. George beguiles her by getting every word and gesture precisely right during the time they spend together—like some teenage Cary Grant whose uncle owns a New York City diner—and yet Charlotte knows she can’t hold on to him. “I lay claim to George for a little while,” she explains, “and then I let him go because I think it’s good practice for the rest of my life, because I think the longer you love someone the more it hurts, the more you have to imagine them in places they’ll never be again.”

Awayland: Stories, by Ramona Ausubel (March 6)
Ramona Ausbel’s second short story collection continues to prove her a surprising, funny, and deft fabulist. In “Freshwater from the Sea,” Ausubel tells the story of a mother who gradually dissolves into mist after returning to her home country, Lebanon. It captures the feeling of displacement and longing for a homeland—as well as the yearning for connection with one’s own unknowable family members—more precisely than a strictly realistic account ever could. Even when Ausubel is at her most playful, as in “You Can Find Love Now,” told from the perspective of a Cyclops as he fills out an online dating profile, the bizarre and fantastic elements of her stories heighten that sense of connection-seeking common to all humans—and apparently Cyclopses. “Everyone has had good times,” Cyclops insists. “Everyone has a picture of himself in front of a pinkening sunset with a glass of white wine. Choose them if you want to. Choose me if you want someone to hold you above his head in the moonlight, bite your wrist until the first rust comes out.”

Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (April 10)
Thompson-Spires’ debut delves into the lives of contemporary black women in witty, up-to-the-minute social satires featuring YouTubers, anime cosplayers, and people who eat only fruit. This book comes recommended by master short story craftsman George Saunders, who wrote, “Vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive, these stories by the vastly talented Thompson-Spires create a compelling surface tension made of equal parts skepticism towards human nature and intense fondness of it. Located on the big questions, they are full of heart.”
Which short story collections are you looking forward to reading?