Recently on tumblr I saw a list of “10 captivating short stories” being recommended, and there were just as many stories by Isaac Asimov on the list as there were stories by women. Come on. Really?
So I decided to even things up and do a recs list of ten short stories featuring only two male authors and eight authors of other genders.
This was not hard! There’s lots of great short stories written by people who aren’t dudes, available to read online for free. The only hard part was narrowing my list down. (Also writing descriptions of each. I’m really bad at pithy enticing nonspoilery descriptions. My apologies for the below. I did my best.)
1. Never the Same, by Polenth Blake
Set on another planet on a colony that isn’t thriving, exploring the family stuff of the main character at the same time as exploring the reason for the colony’s difficulties. It’s complicated and unsettling in the best kind of ways, and has a wonderfully interesting main character.
2. The Perseverance of Angela’s Past Life, by Zen Cho
I figure at this point I have recced my favourite Zen Cho story (The House of Aunts!) often enough that it’s time to take a break and recommend other Zen Cho stories because she has SO MANY good stories because she’s a brilliant writer; her stories are never a disappointment. This one is about dealing with an overly-literal past version of yourself who you thought you’d left behind, and it is lovely.
3. The Cage, by A.M. Dellamonica
Look it’s the canadian lesbian activist community werewolf baby story of my heart. IT’S BASICALLY THE BEST.
4. The Tempting: A Love Story, by James Alan Gardner
Definitely one of the weirder stories on this list, and I love it for that. I haven’t reread it in a while and I don’t actually remember the plot? Haha like I ever read for plot anyways. AT ANY RATE this is a deeply interesting story and I recommend it! or it wouldn’t be on this list, obviously.
5. The Bride In Furs, by Layla Lawlor
An excellent fairy-tale-ish story, with a good fairy tale feel, that is all about ladies, aww yeah. INTO IT.
6. The Lady Astronaut of Mars, by Mary Robinette Kowal
It’s about an aging famous astronaut who’s been wanting another opportunity to venture into space for years. What a good everything. I cried and it was amazing.
7. Burning Girls, by Veronica Schanoes
Let me go with the official description because it’s better than what I could come up with: This story “is a fascinating dark fantasy novella about a Jewish girl educated by her grandmother as a healer and witch growing up in an increasingly hostile environment in Poland in the late nineteenth century. In addition to the natural danger of destruction by Cossacks, she must deal with a demon plaguing her family.” YEAH. And it’s REALLY GOOD.
8. Sauerkraut Station, by Ferrett Steinmetz
Little House on the Prairie in space, is more or less its hook, and it IS that but it is also a million times better than that makes it sound. I had a lot of feelings.
9. Jackalope Wives, by Ursula Vernon
Ursula Vernon won a Nebula for this! And with good reason, holy crap. I mean I love every word Ursula Vernon ever puts down on page or screen but this is definitely a particularly good piece of Ursula Vernon’s words. It’s… I don’t know, it’s a fairy-tale-ish story with a strong sense of character and of place, and about identity and about making hard decisions. And stuff. I’m bad at one-sentence plot teasers!
10. Sleeper, by Jo Walton
The official summary: “History is a thing we make—in more senses than one. And from more directions.” YEAH. This story starts off slowly but is totally worth the read! It’s about a woman in the future writing a biography of a man from the 20th century who had secrets.
