Whether you’ve been following these writers for years or are discovering their work for the first time, check out these eight short story and essay collections written or curated by bestselling, award-winning, and debut black authors. Read more
Writers of short fiction and personal essays have a knack for filling a few short pages with a ton of emotion, humor, and excitement. Read more
Starting at 12 PM ET today, we’re giving away a FREE full audiobook of Redeployment by Phil Klay in honor of Memorial Day. Offer ends on Friday, May 26th, at 11:59 AM ET. Read more
“We just got finished recording the audio version of my book This is Really Happening. My book is about my life. It’s an essay collection about growing up, being in love, it’s about being afraid, it’s about being sick and it’s about getting over it and moving on.”
Learn more about This is Really Happening.
Are you a fan of short stories? Then Big Cats is the audiobook for you. The acclaimed collection was released in audio this week and it has a star-studded cast. With the likes of Patricia Arquette, Helen Hunt, Rainn Wilson, and Jenna Fischer, among others, Big Cats is full of big personalities.
Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl, is back with a short story called The Grownup. The Grownup is a chilling ghost story about a suburban family in a Gothic Victorian home.
The nameless narrator is a young grafter woman. She works at a spiritual shop—in front they provide women with psychic readings; in back, they provide pleasure to men. One day, a disheveled woman, Susan, enters the shop and asks for help. Her house may be haunted, and her unusual stepson may have sinister intentions. Intending to use Susan as a conduit to other wealthy women interested in psychic house calls, the narrator agrees to help.
Once the narrator begins visiting the family and the home, however, eerily disturbing events and stories unfold…and things are not necessarily as they seem.
Listen to a clip from The Grownup read by Julia Whelan. The Grownup
I was a little disappointed to hear that Anthony Marra‘s follow-up to his stunning New York Times bestselling debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, was a book of short stories entitled The Tsar of Love and Techno. I don’t normally love short story collections; it’s hard to find a collection where every story is truly memorable. I always feel the need to delve deeper into characters or situations. Needless to say, I was worried that would be the case with The Tsar of Love and Techno. I was completely wrong. In this collection, the characters and their stories are subtly intertwined, making it feel like one continuous, grand novel. Read more
Breeze through your next workout session. Motivation can be elusive at times, but we’ve put together three, free short story playlists that are guaranteed to keep you pumping that iron. Or running that last mile. Or doing whatever it is you like to do when you workout. Read more