NBA-Finalist Karen E. Bender’s Favorite Short Stories
All-Time Greats and Unexpected Gems from a Master of the Form
When I read these stories, I really wish I had written them. I am having conversations with these stories, in different ways.
I read for strangeness—the sense that the world is presented in a way that is not how you have been told it is, but that you know, instinctively, it can be. I read for the beauty of the language and sentences, and a sense of vision and real feeling. All of these stories have these elements. Go read them, now.
- “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander
Adam JohnsonAmerican InnovationsAndrea BarrettCarolyn FerrellCharles D'AmbrosioColin BarrettCynthia OzickDon DeLilloEdith PearlmanJhumpa LahiriJohn CheeverJunot DiazKaren E. BenderMavis GallantMiranda JulyNathan EnglanderNational Book AwardsRebecca LeeRivka Galchenshort fictionshort storiesStanley Elkinstory collectionsTillie OlsonTom BarbashZZ Packer