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Best short stories and collections everyone should read.

If you are on the lookout for great storytelling but don’t want to commit to a full-length novel, then short story collections are the answer. Whether it’s just before bed, during your commute, or waiting to see your doctor, small chunks of time are perfect for reading short stories.

Here we have gathered thirty-one of the best short stories and collections , from all sorts of backgrounds and sources, to help you grow your “To Be Read” pile.

For your convenience, we've divided this post into two parts: 1. the ten best free short stories to read right now , and 2. best short story collections. Feel free to jump to the section that you prefer!

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great short stories out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized short story recommendation 😉

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Free Short Stories to Read Right Now

These individual short stories are the best of the best — and the even better news is that they're available for free online for you to peruse. From classics published in the 1900s to a short story that exploded in late 2017, here are ten of the greatest free short stories for you to read.

1. “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl

While not exactly a philosophical or political tale like our first two examples, this twisty short story from Dahl does delve into some shady moral territory. We are introduced to Mary Maloney: a loving wife and dedicated homemaker. In just a few short paragraphs describing how she welcomes her husband home, Dahl makes us sympathize with Mary — before a rash act turns her life upside down and takes the reader with her on a dark journey.

For those who haven’t read it, we won’t spoil the rest. However, it’s safe to say that Dahl serves up a fiendish twist on a platter.

2. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

A perennial feature in many a high school syllabus, Shirley Jackson’s best-known short story clinically details an unusual ritual that takes place in a small town. There’s not exactly a lot of plot to spoil in The Lottery — but within a few short pages, Jackson manages to represent the mob mentality that can drive reasonable people to commit heinous acts.

3. “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore

Told in the second person point of view , this story from Moore’s debut anthology Self-Help takes an honest look at the inner life of a struggling artist. Through the use of an unusual POV, the author manages to turn her reader into a confidante — making it abundantly clear that the ‘you’ the narrator is speaking about is actually herself.

This story is a standout, but the entire collection is well worth a read for its insight, humor, and disregard for literary norms.

4. “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian

In the Social Media Age, no short story has gone viral the way this New Yorker contribution from Roupenian has. Arriving at the height of #MeToo, it begins with 20-year-old Margot embarking on the early stages of flirtation with an older man, Robert. As she gets to know more about this man (as well as filling in the gaps with her imagination), the power dynamic in their relationship starts to fluctuate.

Lauded for its portrayal of Margot’s inner life and the fears many modern women face when it comes to dating, it also has its fair share of detractors — many are critical of the central character, some are downright outraged by the story’s success. Still, this story undeniably struck a chord with the reading public, and will likely remain relevant for some time.

5. “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver

First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981, “Cathedral” is today known as one of Raymond Carver’s finest works. When it opens, we meet a narrator whose wife is expecting a visit from an old friend, a blind man. Dissatisfied and distrusting of people not like him, our narrator struggles to connect until the blind man asks him to describe a cathedral to him. 

 “Cathedral” is one of Carver’s own personal favorites, and deservedly so. His characteristic minimalist style is devastating as the story builds up to a shattering moment of emotional truth — an ultimate reminder that no-one else can capture the quiet sadness of working-class people like him. 

6. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

Innocuously titled, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is nevertheless Flannery O’Connor’s bleakest — and most famous — work. It begins unassumingly with a Southern family who’s planning to go on a road trip. Yet the journey is rudely interrupted when their car overturns on an abandoned dirt road — and they are met by an enigmatic group of three men, coming up over the far hill. 

This short story inspired some strong reactions from the public upon publication — and the conversation continues today as to its frank depiction of the nature of good and evil. Again, we won’t spoil anything for you, except to say that “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is well worth your time. 

7. “Symbols and Signs” by Vladimir Nabokov

The famous author of Lolita wrote “Signs and Symbols” in 1948. Its premise is seemingly simple: an elderly couple visits their mentally ill son in the sanatorium in America. Yet their background and trials come into sharp focus as the story develops, until an explosive ending disrupts everyone’s peace of mind. 

As you might expect, the somber “Symbols and Signs” diverges sharply from Lolita in terms of both tone and subject — but its ending will keep you awake at night thinking about its implications.  

8. “Sticks” by George Saunders

Not so much a short story as it is flash fiction, “Sticks” is written from the perspective of a young man whose father has an unusual habit: dressing up a crucifix that’s built of out a metal pole in the yard. One of America’s greatest living short story writers, George Saunders explained: "For two years I'd been driving past a house like the one in the story, imagining the owner as a man more joyful and self-possessed and less self-conscious than myself. Then one day I got sick of him and invented his opposite, and there was the story." 

The result is a masterful piece of fiction that builds something out of seemingly nothing — all in the space of only two paragraphs. 

9. “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury

If there’s anyone who you can trust to deliver thought-provoking, terrifying science fiction on the regular, it’s Ray Bradbury. In “The Veldt,” George and Lydia Hadley have bought an automated house that comes with a “nursey,” or a virtual reality room. Worried about the nursery’s effect on the kids, George and Lydia think about turning off the nursey — but the problem is that their children are obsessed with it. 

As an ominously prescient prediction of the downside of technology, “The Veldt” is a short and shining example of how Ray Bradbury was an author before his time. 

10. “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes

In this classic short story, we are privy to the journals of Charlie Gordon, a cleaner with an IQ of 68. ("I reely wantd to lern I wantid it more even then pepul who are smarter even then me. All my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb.”) Charlie’s luck changes when he is selected for an experiment that purports to turn him into a genius — but everything that goes up must come down in the end. 

“Flowers for Algernon” won the Hugo Award in 1960 for its groundbreaking presentation. Heartbreaking and rich with subtle poignance, it is likely to remain a staple for centuries to come.  

Best Short Story Collections to Devour

If you'd like many short stories at your fingertips all at once, short story collections are where you should look. Here, we've collected 21 of the best short story collections — along with the standout story in each volume.

11. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

Standout Story: “A Manual for Cleaning Women”

12. Blow-up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar

Standout Story: “House Taken Over”

13. Drifting House by Krys Lee

Standout Story: “Drifting House”

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14. Dubliners by James Joyce

Standout Story: “The Dead”

15. Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

Standout Story: “Riding the Bullet”

16. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

Standout Story: “The Garden of Forking Paths”

17. Florida by Lauren Groff

Standout Story: “Above and Below”

18. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

Standout Story: “The Flints of Memory Lane”

19. Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl

Standout Story: “The Pig”

20. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Standout Story: “Samsa in Love”

21. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Standout Story: “For Esme - With Love and Squalor”

22. Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Standout Story: “In a Bamboo Grove”

23. Runaway by Alice Munro

Standout Story: “Runaway”

24. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel García Márquez

Standout Story: “The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow”

25. The Collected Stories by Grace Paley

Standout Story: “A Man Told Me the Story of His Life”

26. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway

Standout Story: “Hills Like White Elephants”

27. The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor

Standout Story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

28. The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov

Standout Story: “The Lady with the Dog”

29. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Standout Story: “I’d Love You to Want Me”

30. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Standout Story: “The Thing Around Your Neck”

31. The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré

Standout Story: “When Women Love Men”

Ready to write your own short story? Check out these short story ideas for all your inspiration needs.

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The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children

Edited by Katherine Rundell, with contributions from more than 100 children’s writers and illustrators

This extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.

The collection, published by Bloomsbury, is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone working in hospitals.

Read the book

When schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in both 2020 and 2021 Bloomsbury generously permitted us to share The Book of Hopes as an ebook freely accessible to schools and families.

As part of our Education Recovery support for schools and children we worked with partners to develop a range of supporting resources, that you can find linked below.

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English Literature: Resources for Graduate Research

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Primary Source Research

For graduate students in English, primary sources can be defined as original works of literature as well as contemporary accounts of that literature, letters written by authors, newspaper accounts of their publication, and much more.

The resources on this page include online access to a wide array of primary sources, including pamphlets and ephemera, which can help researchers to gain a better understanding of the time and place in which a work of literature was created.

Primary Sources in Print

In addition to the literature itself, the library's collection includes a significant number of primary sources such as letters, diaries, and much more. Use JumboSearch to locate these print materials in the library's collection. Below is a sample of the kind of material you can find. 

Are you looking for a primary text in English, such as a novel, poem, short story, or play?  Use the JumboSearch box to locate print resources in the library. You can also find digitized primary texts in library databases and on the web on this page.

Search by Keyword, Title, Subject, or Creator

The resources in this section include a wide variety of primary sources such as original novels, poems, plays, short stories, and much more.

• Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections Access to African American Poetry, American Poetry, The Bible in English, Editions & Adaptations of Shakespeare, and Twentieth-Century American Poetry.
• Early English Books Online Over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), comprising all known English language books from the beginning of printing to 1700.
• Early American imprints. Series I, Evans (1639-1800) An online collection reproducing every extant book, pamphlet, and broadside published in America from 1639 to 1819 - the complete printed, non-serial source materials of American culture for the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Early American imprints. Series II, Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 Books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the distinguished bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; law; general reference. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the eighteenth century, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare. Where they add scholarly value or contain important differences, multiple editions of each individual work are offered.
• European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection This collection contains over 2 million printed pages of English-language works, many of them comprising multiple volumes, and constitutes one of the most important collections of British Romantic-era writing in existence anywhere.
• Nineteenth Century Collections Online A collection of primary sources organized into topical collections. Sources include monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, and statistics. Searching may be carried out within a topical collection or across multiple collections. Introduced in 2012, the NCCO database will be built over several years.
• Nineteenth Century British Fiction Online Created by Jennifer Ferguson, Team Lead for Arts & Humanities at Tisch Library, this resource includes links to digitized versions of important works by key authors during the Long Nineteenth Century. Along with the current canonical works, the resource includes additional titles by each author as well as bibliographies, contextual information, and much more.
• 19th century British pamphlets collection via JSTOR Digital primary source collection of more than 20,000 pamphlets digitized from research universities in the United Kingdom. A wide range of topics are covered, focusing on political and economic life in 19th century Britain. While the bulk of the collection is from the 19th century, there are some pamphlets included going back to 1545.
• Play Index Play Index provides citations to over 30,000 plays written or translated into English, from Antiquity to the present, published in collections since 1949: one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays, and classic drama. It includes links to the full text of plays if available on the web.
• The Rise of Gothic Fiction in England & the United States Created by Jennifer Ferguson, Team Lead for Arts & Humanities at Tisch Library, this resource includes links to digitized versions of important works of Gothic Fiction published in England and the United States from the Eighteenth to Early-Twentieth Centuries. The resource includes each author's most important contributions to the Gothic as well as bibliographies, contextual information, and much more.
• Short Story Index Index to short stories from a variety of magazines. Indexing from 1915-present; select full-text from 1994. Entries feature links to other works by the author and other stories in the source collection.
• Short Story Index Retrospective Contains more than 140,000 short stories from some 350 periodicals and collections of short stories, and cites short stories published over 150 years.
• Twentieth-Century American Poetry Provides full-text access to approximately 50,000 poems by over 300 American poets. Search by author, keyword, title, first line, dates, publisher, gender, or literary movement.
• Twentieth Century North American Drama Full texts of 1,900 plays from the United States and Canada, of which 1,250 are in copyright and licensed from the authors or their estates.
• Women Writers Online A full-text collection of works written by women, in English or in English translation, before 1850.
• Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive Digital primary source collection made up of four parts, Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition; Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World; Part III: Institution of Slavery; Part IV: Age of Emancipation. Includes digitized books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, private papers, and letters touching on all aspects of historical slavery.
• Gale Primary Sources Gale Primary Sources combines a number of primary source collections in the humanities and social sciences to allow for research across several centuries and millions of pages of newspapers, books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs.
• HathiTrust Digital Library HathiTrust is a large-scale collaborative repository with over 10 million volumes including content digitized via the Google Books project, Internet Archive, and by local libraries. Public domain content is full-text; non-public domain content (post-1923) is for full-text searching only. Since Tufts is a member, those with a Tufts login can download the pdf of pre-1923 materials and can build a personal collection. To login select Collections, then select login from the upper right; choose Tufts University and login using your Tufts username and password.
• Shakespeare's Globe Archive Shakespeare's Globe holds archival material relating to all of the plays produced at the Globe since 1996 and other records documenting the origins and development of the project to build the present Globe on Bankside. This catalogue contains overall descriptions of each of these collections, as well as more detailed file-level records where these exist.
• Parker Library on the Web Corpus Christi College and the Stanford University Libraries welcome you to Parker Library on the Web, a digital exhibit designed to support use and study of the manuscripts in the historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Parker Library is a treasure trove of rare medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, as well as early printed books. Almost all manuscripts in the Parker Library collection have been fully digitised and are available in this exhibit, along with associated bibliographic references and annotations made by scholars from around the world.
• African American Women Writers of the 19th Century Digital collection of some 52 published works by 19th-Century black women writers. This collection provides access to the thought, perspectives, and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920.
• British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832 The British Women Romantic Poets Project is a digital initiative of the UC Davis General Library.
• Discovering Literature Discovering Literature brings to life the social, political and cultural context in which key works of literature were written. Enjoy digitised treasures from the British Library's collection, newly commissioned articles, short documentary films, and teacher's notes. Includes thousands of key titles, along with contextual information, representing periods from the Medieval to the 20th Century.
• Evans Early American Imprint Collection This project transcribes and encodes the page images of books from ProQuest’s Early English Books Online, Gale Cengage’s Eighteenth Century Collections Online, and Readex’s Evans Early American Imprints. This work, and the resulting text files, are jointly funded and owned by more than 150 libraries worldwide. Ultimately, all of the TCP’s work will be placed into the public domain for anyone to use. The texts can be searched through web interfaces provided by the libraries at the University of Michigan and University of Oxford.
• Representative Poetry Online Hosted by the University of Toronto Libraries, Representative Poetry Online is a web anthology of 4,800 poems in English and French by over 700 poets spanning 1400 years.
• Internet Archive Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, and much more.
• Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebook versions of titles in the public domain to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.
• Westminster Detective Library It is the mission of the Westminster Detective Library to catalog and make available online all the short fiction dealing with detectives and detection published in the United States before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891).
• Reading Europe: European Culture through the book The "Reading Europe: European culture through the book" exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view some of the hidden literary gems from the national libraries of Europe. Twenty-three countries have selected nearly a thousand works for the public to peruse. Visitors can discover everything from 18th century English bestsellers to the lost interiors of Russian palaces, all presented in an innovative and multilingual form.
• LibriVox LibriVox audiobooks are free for anyone to listen to on their computers, iPods or other mobile device, or to burn onto a CD. Titles on LibriVox are in the public domain and include a wide array of classic literature.
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Poetry & Short Story Reference Source

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source is a rich full-text database containing thousands of classic and contemporary poems, short stories, biographies, essays, lesson plans and learning guides. It also includes high-quality videos and audio recordings from the Academy of American Poets.

A Historically Rich Collection of Poems, Short Stories and More

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source includes plays and speeches, classic books, biographies, critical analyses, contextual essays and explications for important works, and essays on poetic forms, literary terms, techniques and movements.

The database provides contemporary content from the finest publishers including Knopf, Houghton Mifflin, New Directions, Copper Canyon Press and dozens of authors and estates.

Poetry showcases from  The Paris Review  highlight current and emerging poets and their works. Each showcase includes the poet’s biography, two to six poems, and an interview with the poet. Audio recordings of these interviews, as well as poets reciting their works, are also available.

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source also  contains selected works of major and minor American and English poets, along with international poetry representing each continent (accompanied by English translations, when available).

Additional C ontent Highlights

• More than 2,800 audio recordings of poets reading their own works from the Academy of American Poets, poets reading works of other poets and podcasts from The Poetry Foundation
• High-quality videos provided by the Academy of American Poets
• More than 430 full-text explications of both classic and contemporary poems

Intuitive User Experience

Available through Explora , Poetry & Short Story Reference Source offers a variety of features and functionality to support research success and productivity. In addition to simple and advanced search options and powerful filters, researchers have the ability to explore topics by category, including authors, works, literary periods and movements and literary forms, styles and techniques.

Each category breaks down into popular, colloquial or curriculum-based subtopics that are logical for all users and friendlier to younger or novice researchers. Clicking on the subtopic brings the user to a page with a topic overview, related subtopics and overview articles, sample search results (with the option to view all results) and a carousel of relevant e-books (if available).

Visit the Explora page to learn about additional features, functionality and integrations.

School Curriculum Support

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source offers supplemental teaching and learning guides featuring lesson plans and assignments specifically crafted for use with this database. "Poetry Off the Page" lesson plans align with NCTE and Common Core curriculum standards.

The database also contains proprietary infographics to support teaching and learning. These include literary timelines, poetry word clouds, and short story plot points.

Users can browse by author name, by poem or short-story title, by poem forms or techniques, by periods and movements, and by themes. The advanced search functionality and the browsability of the collection are high-quality features. Recommended for academic institutions.

— Bonnie J. M. Swoger, Library Journal

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Crafting a compelling collection – how to organize your short stories, poetry, and more

by kobowritinglife | Mar 3, 2023 | Blog | 0 comments

We all know how a novel, for the most part, is structured: numbered chapters that follow the sequence of the story, with each chapter building upon the previous one and leading into the next. But for poetry and short story collections, the organization is significantly different.

If you’re working on a poetry collection, a short story collection, a series of essays, or even an anthology, you might find yourself feeling stumped as to how to organize them – especially if the only clear connection between the works is that they are all by the same author or fall under the same genre. Not every collection has a clear theme – though many do often follow a theme throughout, regarding their subject matter. This is especially true if we are talking about nonfiction, such as a collection of personal essays or essays on a certain topic. Regardless, it can be daunting to organize a dozen short stories, half a dozen essays or up to fifty poems to create a complete collection!

Here are our tips in craft a compelling collection of poems, short stories, essays, and more that you can apply to your next organization session.

Crafting Your Collection

Start with your most compelling piece – this one is straightforward. Narrow down your most compelling piece – the one with the best hook, the best first line, the best title – and place it at the beginning of the collection. This is what readers will see first. It needs to draw them in. Make sure

Vary the lengths of your pieces – this helps the reading from getting monotonous. Varying the length of the stories or poems will help keep a reader interested and get them to continue to read. A shorter short story after a longer one can feel like a nice break – and is also great for people who read in short bursts or between other tasks during the day! A lot of readers enjoy poetry and short stories for the “bite-sized” experience of them. Accommodate that type of reader by varying the lengths, switching from long to shorter to short and back to long again.

This is especially important if your collection contains a novella – putting the novella at the beginning or the end of the manuscript is your best bet. Never put a novella-length piece right in the middle!

Follow “like with like” writing –this is subjective, but often, a collection of works has a thematic connection or similarity in tone – even if the author didn’t intend it to be this way! Pay attention to thematic connections between pieces and organize them accordingly. If you find yourself noticing

Put an impactful piece in the middle –to bridge the gap between the compelling piece at the beginning and the strong piece at the end, find an emotionally impactful or thought-provoking piece for the middle. This will help to push the reader along and keep them interested! Sometimes, those new to poetry collections or short stories need this type of ferrying in order to get them through the manuscript.

Section the collection into parts – another way to effectively build your collection is to section into parts. If you find that certain poems, essays, or short stories are thematically linked, considered separating them in this way to create a compelling reading experience.

For example, in a collection of personal essays, maybe start with the ones that touch on your childhood or teenage years. Or, if you’re compiling poems, put them into sections by subject matter: poems on relationships with others for part one, poems on the relationship with yourself for part two, and so on. Organizing by linear time, subject matter, or even loosely by theme can help your collection read easier and engage the reader further.

End with your strongest piece – we all want our works to end on a high note, even if that high note isn’t necessarily a happy ending! In poetry, short stories, and other collections, its best to end with your best piece, one that will leave the reader thinking about your work and eager to share their reading experience with others. The strongest piece here is not only the strongest written one, but also the strongest in subject matter. Consider this final piece carefully.

Include an author’s note – lastly, common to poetry and essay collections especially, is the author’s note. Here, the author my elucidate on the reference they made to other poems, other works of literature, other authors, pop culture, history, etc., in an index-like way or simple as a short essay on the contents they feel needed more explanation. A great example of this is when poets mention the names of other poets and poems that inspired them. This is a helpful way to not only properly attribute your influences and writing inspirations, but also to give a shout-out to other poets, whether they be your contemporaries or a poet from the distant pass.

Author’s notes are an excellent way for an author to “converse” with their reader who, having pick up a poetry or essay collection, is probably interested in what the author has to say on certain subjects relevant to that individual, or is looking to explore someone’s else thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Author’s notes, then, can offer the reader more insight into an author’s thoughts and influences, as well as their experiences in writing.

They can even help to contextualize the collection and give the reader a satisfactory wrap-up to the works therein that is more concrete than the final poem, for example. Overall, they are a great addition to poetry and personal essay collection.

We hope that some of these collection-creating tips help you along the way to publishing an amazing volume of poetry, collected essays, or anthology of works. As always, happy writing!

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Scrivener for essayists, short story writers and poets

Scrivener: perfect for writing collections

Scrivener is not just for novelists. I write short stories and poems, and use Scrivener for my stock of this material, including a record of what’s been published and where.

The best template for collections of material?

This provides a great 3-level structure within the Manuscript folder:

• Part folder
• Chapter folder
• Scene document

And you can rename the Parts, Chapters and Scene titles to suit your own requirements. This is how mine looks for my collection of poems.

I started publishing my poetry before I discovered Scrivener, so I had to pull in my stock of poems and then record details of what had already been published, and where.

From here on, in this article, where I refer to my poetry, this could just as easily be your poems, your stories, your articles, your essays. This strategy works for all such material. I have one Scrivener project for poetry, and a second Scrivener project for short stories.

Import and split

If, currently, all your poems are in a single Word document, it’s easy to pull them into Scrivener using Import and Split.

First, insert a hashmark (or octothorpe!) ahead of the text that you want to form your document title. This takes a while, but saves effort in the long run.

I highlighted my ‘Stock of Poems’ folder in the Binder and selected File/ Import / Import and Split …

When prompted, I identified the Word document I’d prepared with its hashmarks and was delighted to see that the footnotes I’d written in Word transferred to the Inspector footnotes.

These footnotes remind me, for each poem, what inspired me to write it, when that happened and details of the poem’s progress toward publication.

If your poems are scattered, involving many different sources, the process will be slower, but worth the effort in the long run.

If you need to copy and paste text, especially from Word, remember to use Paste and Match Style ; otherwise, your manuscript will be a mess of unwanted formatting commands – none of which you can see, but they will drive you mad eventually.

And don’t worry about inserting the poems in alphabetical order on title; let Scrivener do that for you!

Sorting poems into alphabetical order by title

My poems were in alphabetical order by title in the original Word document. If yours are not and you’d like them to appear in alphabetical order, Scrivener can sort them for you.

Highlight the folder; mine is called Stock of poems. Select Edit / Sort / Ascending (A-Z).

Creating a collection

Having my complete stock of poems within a single folder is great. However, I also want to see what I published as collections. That’s why I set up a folder for each collection within the Published collections folder.

Scrivener’s Copy To feature is perfect for this task. Highlight the document for the poem. Right click and follow the route Copy To / Manuscript / Published collections / Because I must. Scrivener creates a copy of that poem’s document within the collection. Magic!

When I’m ready to create another collection, the process will be straightforward.

• Set up a new folder for the collection (in the Published collection folder) and give it a title for publication purposes.
• Copy the poems from my stock into that collection.

Publishing a collection

You could use Scrivener just to keep track of your material. It’s good to have everything in one place? Or you could go one step further and use this single project file to publish more collections.

Even though your Binder will have much more information than you want to include in a single collection, you can use File / Compile to publish whichever poems you want to include this time around.

It’s not quite as simple as that. If you select material within the Manuscript folder and try to compile, Scrivener knows this is not your entire manuscript and, while it will export as directed, the options for front matter are greyed out and the icon for an ebook cover is not visible.

So, you need to follow this procedure:

• Create a new folder in Manuscript – I’ve called mine ‘My Poetry’.
• Drag all that you’ve set up so far into that folder.
• Use the Move Left to upgrade that folder so it is the same level as Manuscript. If you don’t already have this icon in your menu, customise your icons to pull it into place. This blog post explains how.

• Copy whatever you want to publish this time into the Manuscript folder. File / compile will then play ball!

Remember to strip out any comments in the material you want to Compile. They will remain in the original material but you won’t want to share this with your ebook readers!

Once you’ve published, the folder you set for the Compile can be dragged to the Published collections folder, leaving the Manuscript folder empty and ready for your next collection.

Formatting an ebook poetry collection

This is how a couple of pages from my ebook looks with no tweaking, just using Scrivener’s default settings.

There is no point changing the font style or the font size; the reader controls these. The only change I might make is to start each new poem on a new page. Easily done: tweak the section type setting so there is a page break before the text of each poem. Learn all about section types here !

Questions? Need a helping hand? Want a demo?

To watch me demonstrating the various Scrivener features mentioned in this blogpost or to ask any questions about the features that serve poets, short story writers – and so on –  so well, book a Simply Scrivener Special .

To help me to prepare, you could also complete this short questionnaire .

The ScrivenerVirgin blog is a journey of discovery: a step-by-step exploration of how Scrivener can change how a writer writes. To subscribe to this blog, click  here .

Also … check out the Scrivener Tips on my  ScrivenerVirgin Facebook page .

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20 LGBTQ Collections of Poetry, Short Stories, and Essays

Some of our favorite new collections of short-form writing by queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming authors.

Almost Home by Madison Kuhn, the Instagram-famous poet and author of Please Don't Go Before I Get Better , is a mesmerizing new collection of poems and prose exploring the meaning and concept of "home," and the process of discovering it within one's self. At 23, Kuhn had already lived in 24 places. Almost Home is her attempt to reconcile her feelings of displacement in the world and achieve at least an emotional and spiritual sense of permanence and stability. Told from the framework of a figurative house, from front porch to bedroom, Kuhn takes you on a spellbinding journey through some of the most intimate parts of her life -- from childhood traumas to learning how to give and receive love. (Gallery Books) -- DG

We Still Leave a Legacy by Philip Robinson is a moving collection of verses by the award-winning poet and well-known activist, dedicated to his own friends and loved ones who transitioned from this world due to HIV/AIDS, cancer, or some other life-altering, debilitating condition. The Black gay writer actually began writing the book nearly 30 years ago when he started his lasting role as a volunteer and activist for HIV/AIDS causes. This touching memoriam, now available in paperback, lovingly gives honor to the many in Robinson's life who were gone from this realm too soon. (We Still Leave a Legacy Press) -- DG

Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson, the renowned queer spoken-word poet, is a captivating collection of writings that take a delicately nuanced and artistic look at gender, love, heartbreak, and family -- in addition to being a book of protest. Within her exciting prose, Gibson fiercely tackles some of today's most pressing and controversial issues as a society. Whether she's lashing out at gun violence, homophobia, or white supremacy, the winner of the first Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2008 goes right for the jugular with her powerful and unapologetic style. (Button Poetry) -- DG

Boss Broad by Megan Volpert, the acclaimed queer feminist teacher, poet, and author, is a new collection of over 40 of her most riveting poems in which she creatively utilizes iconic pop-culture references, from Bruce Springsteen lyrics to Steven Colbert and Patti Smith mentions. "I like working behind enemy lines to knock down powerful, sinister people," Volpert recently told Arts ATL . "In their place, I put queer feminism with splashy, campy, rock 'n' roll attitude." Don't miss out on this timely and exciting commentary that flips the script on an antiquated, patriarchal mindset with brilliant, insightful results. (Sibling Rivalry Press) -- DG

Aviva-No by Shimon Adaf, originally written in Hebrew, is a small collection of poems that artfully combines contemporary Hebrew, Arabic, and Old Armaic languages with ancient biblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinic text. Much of the prose focuses on Adaf's perspective as a member of Israeli society and the daily violence he's witnessed, as well as his sister's untimely death at 43. Now carefully translated into English (alongside its original Hebrew) by Yael Segalovitz in this new paperback edition, all can devour Adaf's often surreal and though-provoking writings. (Alice James Books) -- DG

Feed by Native-American poet Tommy "Teebs" Pico continues to prove his mastery of longform poetry with his fourth installment in a series of short books ( IRL , Nature Poem , and Junk ) that carry on a single narrative. In the semi-autobiographical series, we've seen the narrator through an intense love affair, and its eventual demise. Now in Feed , we witness our protagonist struggle with the aftermath of these events, mixing authentically modern cultural touchstones with thoughts of deep introspection. And lots of humor. Focusing on his relationships with culture and food, or lack thereof due to his post-colonization existence as an Indigenous person, Pico delivers an insightful, often hilarious, and too-rarely-told perspective of modern Native American life. (Tin House Books) -- DG

Frame of Mind: Punk Photos and Essays from Washington D.C. and Beyond, 1997-2017 photographed by Antonia Tricarico captures the gritty heart and soul of the late '90s punk scene in all its sweaty, raging glory. Focusing on bands born out of the D.C. area -- like Fugazi, Deep Lust, Lungfish, and Stinking Lizaveta -- this decadent coffee table book also features dozens of bands and artists (L7, Babes in Toyland) beyond the D.C. demographic who have drawn inspiration from this particular sect of punk. Though the photos feature artists of all genders, the fascinating essays that accompany them were penned by an impressive roster of women in rock (Joan Jett, Alice Bag, and Lori Barbero, to name a few). These writings, alongside renowned rock photographer Tricarico's unforgettably visceral images, make you feel like you've won the ultimate backstage pass. (Akashic Books) -- DG

Delicate Tiger. Ferocious Snowflake. by Christopher Soden is a carefully chosen selection of the famed critic's reviews of theatrical productions. Whereas other reviewers often focus almost primarily on what did or did not work in a staging, Soden approaches from a different point of view. His perspective focuses instead on what he finds uplifting in a production, with purpose as much as execution. As a result, his reviews are less an attempt to shape reaction to a particular performance as much it is to subtly realign the perspective and perception in general of the audience. This unique view of the reviewer as a more priest than judge has endeared him to both his devoted readers as well as the professionals who stage the productions. In addition to teaching and writing reviews, Soden's Queer Anarchy performance piece won the Dallas Voice 's award for Best Stage Performance. (Lulu) -- Donald Padgett

Step Lightly by Kendall Klym, PhD, is a powerhouse collection of 15 short stories exploring the art of dance, movement, and the ongoing journey of connecting our hearts, souls, and bodies. A former professional ballet dancer, Klym channels the power of self-expression through dance in an array of human tales -- from an amateur ballerina in her 40s who forms a bond with her dance class, to a woman with a broken marriage whose newfound love for belly dancing sparks a sexual awakening, to a fantasy tale of a magical dessert that summons the ghost of legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova to anyone who eats it. The award-winning storyteller's debut short story collection tickles the imagination while encouraging us to form a better relationship with our bodies. (Livingston Press) -- David Artavia

Running Upon the Wires by Kate Tempest secures the 34-year-old poet's place as one of the greatest young writers today. An incredibly personal collection of poems divided into three parts (The End, The Middle, and The Beginning) is a special experiment crafted beautifully by Tempest to show that love, the driving theme in the book, knows no direction. Her intuitive craftsmanship is on display in various forms of ballads, formal lyrics, and a bit of impetuousness laid out in the form of fragmented sentences beautifully written to represent peace within chaos. A true wordsmith, the London-born poet, playwright, and spoken word performer has managed to create a piece of work that stays ingrained in your mind long after putting it down. (Bloomsbury Publishing) -- DA

The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible edited by Catherine Burns brings everything we love about the acclaimed radio show and podcast, The Moth , into a suspenseful written narrative. Burns, The Moth 's long-time artistic director, brought together people from across the globe to offer their tales of when they had to face the odds, and won. All stories were handpicked from the best narratives ever told on the hit show, meticulously translated for the page. A true emotional ride from start to finish, Occasional Magic will make you laugh, cry, and ponder about how fascinating humankind really is. (Crown Archetype) -- DA

Whereas is Layli Long Soldier's debut collection of poetry highlighting the cultural erasure of Native Americans by the United States. Its unapologetically strident and evoking language shines a light on the broken promises and evolving barriers the government has placed on Native tribes for centuries. Originally published in 2017 and now available in paperback, the Oglala Sioux author's collection of poems is still relevant today and is beautifully expressed through complex historical narratives. The winner of the 2016 Whiting Writers' Award, Long Soldier's work justifiably raises our level of consciousness to new heights. (Graywolf Press) -- DA

Heed the Hollow is Malcolm Tariq's captivating collection of poetry beautifully examining what it means to simply... be. More specifically, the poet explores the full scope of how to rebuild ourselves from the in and out, to be full while at the same time being hollow, to be aware of our humanity, our Blackness, our sexuality, while at the same acknowledging our past, present, future, and what it all means. With deeply moving metaphors and sharp imagery with backdrops of the American South, Tariq plants an emotional seed that dares us to examine our history while remaining conscious of our present path. (Graywolf Press) -- DA

This Wound Is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt is an anthology of poems from Canada's first First Nations Rhodes Scholar. Describing himself as "one of those hopeless romantics who wants every blowjob to be transformative," his poems upset genre and effortlessly play with form. They pave a path for a new perspective and interpretation on queer and decolonial theory, and Indigenous poetry in Native America. His words leap from the page as they challenge coloniality of the present, and the tyranny of sexual and racial norms. Equal parts manifesto and memoir, This Wound Is a World is an introspective call to turn to love and sex to understand the plight of Indigenous peoples, and offer a path to dealing with sadness and pain without sacrificing history and identity. Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation and has won numerous awards for his poetry. (University of Minnesota Press) -- DP

Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons is a lush, gritty, dark, and delicious collection of short stories by the award-winning writer. Told with wit, style, and unapologetic honesty, Parsons's writings unearth the places deep within ourselves that most of us prefer would remain buried. From describing cool, indifferent family dinners to hot-blooded trysts at a Texas pay-by-hour motel, Parsons creates vivid scenes most can relate to at some point or other in their lives, whether they'd like to admit it or not. Queer feminist author and critic Carmen Maria Machado ( Her Body and Other Parties ) called the stories in Black Light "grimy and weird, surprising, [and] utterly lush." (Penguin Random House) -- DG

Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro by Mari Yoshihara offers a fresh perspective on the life of world-renowned classical musician Leonard Bernstein. Through never-before-seen letters from two relatively unknown Japanese individuals, readers get an intimate peak into the famous maestro's personal life and relationships. One of the individuals in question was Kazuko Amano, a woman who started sending Bernstein fan letters in 1947 and grew to become a close family friend. The second set of letters were from Kunihiko Hashimoto, a young man who fell in love with Bernstein in the late '70s and eventually became his business representative. Through reading these beautifully written letters, one can see the powerful impact and influence the man, and his music, had on those around him. (Oxford University Press) -- DG

Allen Ginsberg: South American Journals (January-July 1960) edited by Michael Schumacher is the second of a three-volume series of Ginsberg's personal journals (the first volume being Iron Curtain Journals and the final volume, The Fall of America Journals , is forthcoming). Ginsberg went to South America in 1960 to attend a literary conference and ended up staying for an adventuresome six months. Writing more during this period than in any of his other journals, the great Beat poet's entries are peppered throughout with poetry, notes on his dreams, and other random existential thoughts and ideas. In the South American Journals, Ginsberg recounts his travels through Chile, Peru, particularly his visit to Machu Picchu, and his quest for the source of ayahuasca (also called yage ) -- a natural hallucinogen made from local vine that was recommended by his friend and fellow adventurer, William S. Burroughs. (University of Minnesota Press) -- DG

Nonbinary Memoirs of Gender and Identity edited by Micah Rajunov and Scott Duane is a collection of first-person narratives that explore the lives of individuals across the gender spectrum. The book is divided into five sections ranging from stories that help define our concepts of gender and representation to the development of community and a greater acceptance in the mainstream. The reader will find plenty with which to connect and identify. There are stories dealing with self-realization and coming out, creating one's own person, learning how to stand up, and also stand out. Contributors to Nonbinary Memoirs reads like a who's-who list of LGBTQ , trans, and genderqueer icons -- including activist and author (and the first to coin the term "gender queer") Riki Williams, journalist S.E. Smith, scholar Genny Beemyn, author and social media personality Jeffrey Marsh, poet Christopher Soto, and many others. The voices given agency here speak to everyone who has ever questioned their identity and the rigid roles assigned to them by a non-accepting society. (Columbia University Press) -- DP

Evolution by Eileen Myles, now in paperback, is a collection of the writer's lively and wonderfully creative poems. From the author of the wildly inventive and critically acclaimed Afterglow , a clever dog memoir, comes a fresh collection of vivid prose that conjures everything from exotic imagery of far-off travels to everyday walks through Marfa, Texas, with Honey the pitbull. Don't miss this latest treasure from the queer, award-winning poet who prefers they/them pronouns and has authored over 20 books, including Chelsea Girls and Cool for You . (Grove Paperback) -- Desiree Guerrero

Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist, a Cree, Two-Spirit, trans femme poet and sex educator whom you may know from a widely circulated piece for Them on what it's like to be an Indigenous trans woman on Thanksgiving. This impressive debut collection of Twist's poetry was initially part of Arsenal Pulp Press's series of works exclusively written by queer BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) writers. In Disintegrate/Dissociate , she delves into the intricacies of being human, not shying away from topics like death and transformation. With sparse yet powerful words, Twist's poems explore the depths of grief, trauma, displacement, and identity -- both cultural and sexual. Balancing her rage with delicacy and tenderness, she navigates through what it means to be an Indigenous trans woman in our modern world. "With few words, she conveys so much about the legacies of colonization, the terror of transmisogyny, and the colossal force of them both," said Alok Vaid-Menon, transfeminine activist author of Femme in Public , adding, "In a political moment hell-bent on erasing Indigenous trans voices, Twist's Disintegrate/Dissociate is here to stay." -- DG

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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American author and poet. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Angelou's long list of occupations has included pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, cast-member of the musical Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs.

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The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2022

Featuring bob dylan, elena ferrante, zora neale hurston, jhumpa lahiri, melissa febos, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime ; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Essay Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing  by Elena Ferrante (Europa)

12 Rave • 12 Positive • 4 Mixed

“The lucid, well-formed essays that make up In the Margins  are written in an equally captivating voice … Although a slim collection, there is more than enough meat here to nourish both the common reader and the Ferrante aficionado … Every essay here is a blend of deep thought, rigorous analysis and graceful prose. We occasionally get the odd glimpse of the author…but mainly the focus is on the nuts and bolts of writing and Ferrante’s practice of her craft. The essays are at their most rewarding when Ferrante discusses the origins of her books, in particular the celebrated Neapolitan Novels, and the multifaceted heroines that power them … These essays might not bring us any closer to finding out who Ferrante really is. Instead, though, they provide valuable insight into how she developed as a writer and how she works her magic.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Star Tribune )

2. Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri (Princeton University Press)

8 Rave • 14 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the ‘essential aesthetic and political mission’ of translation. She is excellent in all three modes—so excellent, in fact, that I, a translator myself, could barely read this book. I kept putting it aside, compelled by Lahiri’s writing to go sit at my desk and translate … One of Lahiri’s great gifts as an essayist is her ability to braid multiple ways of thinking together, often in startling ways … a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance; her sentences seem simple even when they’re complex. Their beauty and clarity alone would be enough to wake readers up. ‘Look,’ her essays seem to say: Look how much there is for us to wake up to.”

–Lily Meyer ( NPR )

3. The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster)

10 Rave • 15 Positive • 7 Mixed • 4 Pan

“It is filled with songs and hyperbole and views on love and lust even darker than Blood on the Tracks … There are 66 songs discussed here … Only four are by women, which is ridiculous, but he never asked us … Nothing is proved, but everything is experienced—one really weird and brilliant person’s experience, someone who changed the world many times … Part of the pleasure of the book, even exceeding the delectable Chronicles: Volume One , is that you feel liberated from Being Bob Dylan. He’s not telling you what you got wrong about him. The prose is so vivid and fecund, it was useless to underline, because I just would have underlined the whole book. Dylan’s pulpy, noir imagination is not always for the squeamish. If your idea of art is affirmation of acceptable values, Bob Dylan doesn’t need you … The writing here is at turns vivid, hilarious, and will awaken you to songs you thought you knew … The prose brims everywhere you turn. It is almost disturbing. Bob Dylan got his Nobel and all the other accolades, and now he’s doing my job, and he’s so damn good at it.”

–David Yaffe ( AirMail )

4.  Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos (Catapult)

13 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an excerpt from Body Work here

“In her new book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative , memoirist Melissa Febos handily recuperates the art of writing the self from some of the most common biases against it: that the memoir is a lesser form than the novel. That trauma narratives should somehow be over—we’ve had our fill … Febos rejects these belittlements with eloquence … In its hybridity, this book formalizes one of Febos’s central tenets within it: that there is no disentangling craft from the personal, just as there is no disentangling the personal from the political. It’s a memoir of a life indelibly changed by literary practice and the rigorous integrity demanded of it …

Febos is an essayist of grace and terrific precision, her sentences meticulously sculpted, her paragraphs shapely and compressed … what’s fresh, of course, is Febos herself, remapping this terrain through her context, her life and writing, her unusual combinations of sources (William H. Gass meets Elissa Washuta, for example), her painstaking exactitude and unflappable sureness—and the new readers she will reach with all of this.”

–Megan Milks ( 4Columns )

5. You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston (Amistad)

12 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

“… a dazzling collection of her work … You Don’t Know Us Negroes reveals Hurston at the top of her game as an essayist, cultural critic, anthropologist and beat reporter … Hurston is, by turn, provocative, funny, bawdy, informative and outrageous … Hurston will make you laugh but also make you remember the bitter divide in Black America around performance, language, education and class … But the surprising page turner is at the back of the book, a compilation of Hurston’s coverage of the Ruby McCollom murder trial …

Some of Hurston’s writing is sensationalistic, to be sure, but it’s also a riveting take of gender and race relations at the time … Gates and West have put together a comprehensive collection that lets Hurston shine as a writer, a storyteller and an American iconoclast.”

–Lisa Page ( The Washington Post )

6. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to an interview with Rachel Aviv here

“… written with an astonishing amount of attention and care … Aviv’s triumphs in relating these journeys are many: her unerring narrative instinct, the breadth of context brought to each story, her meticulous reporting. Chief among these is her empathy, which never gives way to pity or sentimentality. She respects her subjects, and so centers their dignity without indulging in the geeky, condescending tone of fascination that can characterize psychologists’ accounts of their patients’ troubles. Though deeply curious about each subject, Aviv doesn’t treat them as anomalous or strange … Aviv’s daunted respect for uncertainty is what makes Strangers to Ourselves distinctive. She is hyperaware of just how sensitive the scale of the self can be.”

–Charlotte Shane ( Bookforum )

7. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors (Graywolf)

11 Rave • 1 Positive Read an excerpt from A Line in the World here

“Nors, known primarily as a fiction writer, here embarks on a languorous and evocative tour of her native Denmark … The dramas of the past are evoked not so much through individual characters as through their traces—buildings, ruins, shipwrecks—and this westerly Denmark is less the land of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and sleek Georg Jensen designs than a place of ancient landscapes steeped in myth … People aren’t wholly incidental to the narrative. Nors introduces us to a variety of colorful characters, and shares vivid memories of her family’s time in a cabin on the coast south of Thyborøn. But in a way that recalls the work of Barry Lopez, nature is at the heart of this beautiful book, framed in essay-like chapters, superbly translated by Caroline Waight.”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

8. Raising Raffi: The First Five Years by Keith Gessen (Viking)

4 Rave • 10 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Raising Raffi here

“A wise, mild and enviably lucid book about a chaotic scene … Is it OK to out your kid like this? … Still, this memoir will seem like a better idea if, a few decades from now, Raffi is happy and healthy and can read it aloud to his own kids while chuckling at what a little miscreant he was … Gessen is a wily parser of children’s literature … He is just as good on parenting manuals … Raising Raffi offers glimpses of what it’s like to eke out literary lives at the intersection of the Trump and Biden administrations … Needing money for one’s children, throughout history, has made parents do desperate things — even write revealing parenthood memoirs … Gessen’s short book is absorbing not because it delivers answers … It’s absorbing because Gessen is a calm and observant writer…who raises, and struggles with, the right questions about himself and the world.”

–Dwight Garner ( The New York Times )

9. The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser (Doubleday)

8 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan Watch an interview with CJ Hauser here

“17 brilliant pieces … This tumbling, in and out of love, structures the collection … Calling Hauser ‘honest’ and ‘vulnerable’ feels inadequate. She embraces and even celebrates her flaws, and she revels in being a provocateur … It is an irony that Hauser, a strong, smart, capable woman, relates to the crane wife’s contortions. She felt helpless in her own romantic relationship. I don’t have one female friend who has not felt some version of this, but putting it into words is risky … this collection is not about neat, happy endings. It’s a constant search for self-discovery … Much has been written on the themes Hauser excavates here, yet her perspective is singular, startlingly so. Many narratives still position finding the perfect match as a measure of whether we’ve led successful lives. The Crane Wife dispenses with that. For that reason, Hauser’s worldview feels fresh and even radical.”

–Hope Reese ( Oprah Daily )

10. How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo (Viking)

8 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from How to Read Now here

“Elaine Castillo’s How to Read Now begins with a section called ‘Author’s Note, or a Virgo Clarifies Things.’ The title is a neat encapsulation of the book’s style: rigorous but still chatty, intellectual but not precious or academic about it … How to Read Now proceeds at a breakneck pace. Each of the book’s eight essays burns bright and hot from start to finish … How to Read Now is not for everybody, but if it is for you, it is clarifying and bracing. Castillo offers a full-throated critique of some of the literary world’s most insipid and self-serving ideas …

So how should we read now? Castillo offers suggestions but no resolution. She is less interested in capital-A Answers…and more excited by the opportunity to restore a multitude of voices and perspectives to the conversation … A book is nothing without a reader; this one is co-created by its recipients, re-created every time the page is turned anew. How to Read Now offers its audience the opportunity to look past the simplicity we’re all too often spoon-fed into order to restore ourselves to chaos and complexity—a way of seeing and reading that demands so much more of us but offers even more in return.”

–Zan Romanoff ( The Los Angeles Times )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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Teachers' Resources

We are grateful to all teachers and professors from around the world who have taken up the challenge of teaching reading, writing, and critical thinking skills to the world's students. Please use the free resources at our website to awaken a life-long passion for literature and learning in your students. Tell your colleagues if you find them helpful. And thank you for choosing to teach!

• Short Stories for Students Recommended stories by grade level: high school, middle school, elementary school, preschool, and English learner idioms.
• Pre-K Wordplay! Toddlers and children in pre-kindergarten have fun and build confidence playing with words. Enjoy this selection of nursery rhymes, counting songs, hink pink riddles, and read-aloud stories to encourage the very earliest readers. We also offer a collection of Yummy Stories .
• Short Stories for Children Classic children's stories, fairytales and folktales with beautiful illustrations, as well as some text exemplars, specifically for pre-k to elementary school. Beatrix Potter, Aesop, Mother Goose, Grimm, Andersen, Kipling, Carroll, Hawthorne, Margery Williams, Ruth Stiles Gannett, Laura E. Richards, Edward Lear, Oscar Wilde, and many more! Great resource for parents.
• Best Fairy Tales by Age Teach Fairy Tales with our recommended stories by age, ideas for lesson plans, discussion questions, and useful links for all grades.
• Chapter Books for Young Readers The Secret Garden, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Little Women, Black Beauty, Treasure Island, and more to inspire independent reading.
• Short Stories for Middle School Students Vol I and Vol II . A wide-range of genres to engage all 6th through 8th grade, up to high school readers.
• Short Stories for High School Students Vol I and Vol II . Note that some of these stories are suitable for college-level course work. If high school students have not read some of the iconic stories on the Middle School list, please consider assigning some for extra credit. We also offer a guide to Russian Writers .
• Study Guides Resource guides by title and genre, designed for MS & HS teachers and students to understand the plot, analyze characters, historic context, literary devices, and meaningful quotes. We offer discussion questions, paired reading and useful links for your lesson plans: Moby-Dick, The Call of the Wild, The Gift of the Magi, The Little Match Girl, The Monkey's Paw, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Pit and the Pendulum, Song of Myself, The Story of An Hour, The Lady, or the Tiger? Genres include: Feminist Literature, Dark Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Gothic Literature, and Fairy Tales. More guides coming!

• Useful Idioms A selection of popular idioms and their meaning, for students and English language learners.
• Poetry for the Well-Read Student Fifty great poems for middle school, high school, and beyond... Poetry exemplars to inspire students to enjoy the power of well chosen words. Whitman, Frost, Carroll, Dickinson, Hughes, Emerson, John Donne, Longfellow, Millay, Li Bai, T.S. Eliot, Akhmatova, Browning, Wilde, Teasdale, Coleridge, Shakespeare, and many more. New! American Patriotic Songs
• Children's Poetry Especially selected poems to engage children from pre-k to elementary school, including exemplars and poems your students will enjoy for their whimsy; Dickinson, Browning, Frost, Millay, Lear, Mother Goose, Kipling, Tennyson, Williams, Alcott, Thayer, Lazarus, Richards.
• Haiku Poetry The haiku poems by Matsuo Basho are simply stunning favorites for building literacy skills. His short story, The Aged Mother , is wonderful for older children through adult. Enjoy Basho's beautiful contributions to literature for yourself!

• American History Students will better understand historical context by reading works from authors who were there and shaped events of their day. Lincoln, Jefferson, Franklin, Roosevelt, King, Jr., Stowe, Hughes, Douglass, Stanton, Bierce. Easy-access to the U.S. Constitution, summary of the Amendments, notable historic essays, speeches, persuasive writing exemplars.
• African American Literature Profiles of activist authors who wrote about issues of racial equality and influenced public opinion. Douglass, Northup, King, Jr, Booker T. Wasington, Du Bois, Stowe, Chesnutt, Dunbar-Nelson and more. Relevant historic documents, including reconstruction amendments.
• Books for Young Readers A selection of time-tested classic books that hold a young readers attention and help them build strong reading skills.
• Civil War Stories A collection of short stories, books, essays, letters, poems and speeches about the American Civil War. Crane, Lincoln, Stowe, Ambrose Bierce, Henry James, Whitman, Edward Everett Hale, Alcott, Howe, and Sullivan Ballou. New! Civil War Songs
• World War I Literature A collection of poems, stories, novels capturing the brutal realities of fear and loss during wartime. Interesting propaganda posters students can use as springboards for further research. You might also appreciate Foodie Books & Wartime Recipes

• Biographies for Kids American authors and historical figures have interesting stories of their own; biographies written especially for older children.
• 25 Great American Novels The usual suspects: Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, The Secret Garden, Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Call of the Wild, The Awakening, The Jungle, and many other classics.
• Common Core Text Exemplars We know this is controversial, but we've included public domain literature exemplars we know you may be teaching. Elementary School texts Middle School texts High School texts
• Studies in Classic American Literature D.H. Lawrence's analysis of Moby Dick, The Scarlett Letter, Fenimore Cooper, Poe, Hardy, Melville, Whitman, and Franklin.

• 100 Great Short Stories This is a great resource to inspire students to read a broad range of authors and write their own.
• 75 Short Short Stories Appropriate for middle school and high school students, these stories can be read in five minutes or less, sorted by mood (witty, introspective, morality tales, other-worldly) to engage students in reading, particularly those who might be reluctant to commit to a novel or long story.
• 50 Great Feel-Good Stories Sorted into two sections: one for middle school/high school through adult, the other for elementary children. These stories offer that "good feeling" which makes reading such a joy. Authors include O. Henry, Oscar Wilde, Kathleen Norris, Leo Tolstoy, T.S. Arthur, Bret Harte, Willa Cather, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Anton Chekhov, Stephen Crane, Louisa May Alcott, H.H. Munro (SAKI), James Baldwin, L. Frank Baum, Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph Martin Kronheim, and many more.
• All About The Short Story This is an introductory page that helps students get acquainted with the short story form and find the answers to some commonly asked questions; what's the definition of a short story, how long is a good short story, how are short stories different from poems and novels, where can I find examples of good short stories? A helpful self-study quiz for students will be added shortly.
• Elementary School Reading If you are teaching kindergarten through 5th grade (K-5), you will find age-appropriate reading in the Children's Library , where we feature great stories for kids to read, as well as great stories to read out loud to children. Pre-K and beginner readers will enjoy exploring Pre-K Wordplay! Stronger readers might try to read a selection from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories . There is also an illustrated section devoted to Aesop's Fables . Kindergarten and first-grade teachers, visit Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes .

• The Bard: William Shakespeare Don't forget Shakespeare! This is a collection of Shakespeare plays and sonnets.

• Features Page This page highlights more resources at the site, inlcuding historical documents, a collection of African-American literature, a listing of women authors, poetry, essays, fairy-tales, and more.
• Literature & History Literature, culture, and history are inextricably tied together. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin may have hastened the arrival of the American Civil War, and Thoreau's essay On Civil Disobedience informed Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and continues to influence culture today. We offer a collection of important historical works to help you bring landmark documents like The Gettysburg Adress into your classroom instruction and discussions. Enjoy American History .

I want to build a section here, with links that will help teachers to become better teachers, find ways to inspire their students and spark the joy of reading in them. I will seed this section with some links that I have found inspiring and helpful. Please email suggestions to me using the email address toward the bottom of this page.

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The Catcher in the Rye is not public domain material, so I cannot host it at this site, but many of you will teach it during your career. As you plan for you class and teach the material, I hope you will find this work, by teacher Shaun L. Kelly to be inspirational and helpful to you and your students: Growing Old With Holden

Rob Velella is an independent scholar of American Literature. He maintains The American Literary Blog and holds an MA in English & Publishing. He is passionate about literary history and his extensive knowledge is on display at his blog. I include him here as a potential resource that can be booked to come to your school or classroom to provide a living history performance. His most popular dramatic personae are Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.