A Personal Anthology, by Abi Hynes
Loads of the writers on this list are ones I know personally and who have inspired me over the last decade hearing them read at live literature events in Manchester and beyond.
‘The Problem With Blackberries’ by Kate Feld (First published by minor literature[s], 2016, and available to read online here)
“I mark the day when the blackberries are perfectly ripe. And the day after. Then it changes. Then I don’t want to see them anymore.”
This story was the easiest one for me to choose, because I’ve thought about it at least a couple of times a month ever since I first read it (and every single time I notice blackberries at the side of a train or a tram track). Kate Feld is a magician; this tiny story feels as shockingly personal to me reading it now as it did when I first discovered it.
‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin (First published in New Dimensions, 1973, and collected in The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Harper & Row, 1975. Also available in The Wind’s Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose, Gollancz SF Masterworks, 2015)
“Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
Ursula K. Le Guin’s stories feel like the definition of the form to me, and her writing played a big part in forming my ideas about what short fiction can do and how they can use apparently simple storytelling to tell us deep truths about ourselves and the world. I love this story, which manages to be both escapist and monstrously real and totally heartbreaking. It calls for courage and demands hope.
‘Pushed Buttons’ by David Hartley (First published in Electric Literature, 2023, and available to read online here)
“Liz put her father-in-law in the lift, pushed the button, and watched as he was taken away.”
This is a great story from one of my closest friends; we’ve been in a fiction writing group together for over 10 years. I wouldn’t be writing fiction if it wasn’t for Dave inviting me to join what we call the ‘Gaslamp Writers’ (named for the iconic subterranean Manchester pub we used to meet in every month, often to the background noise a group of sword-dancers practising in the next room). Dave is a lovely person who can write surprisingly nasty stories – this is one with a particularly sharp set of teeth.
I love the way this story uses structure to let its momentum build and build, to reveal truths beneath truths about its characters. I’ll let you discover this terrible father-in-law and even more frightening lift for yourselves…
‘The Correct Hanging of Game Birds’ by Rosie Garland (First published in X-R-A-Y, 2020, and available to read online here)
Rosie Garland (another friend, who was also my magnificent mentor for a while) is rightfully known for her weird and wonderful tales and writes novels and poetry as well as short stories.
This is a beautiful example of an innovative use of form, and also what can be achieved when a short story is written really sparingly, allowing the reader to fill in the gaps to work out what’s really going on. It’s a brilliant little horror story that lingered with me long after I read it, and I think this section is particularly note-perfect:
“Lock the dog in the yard, to stop it lapping up the puddles that collect under the carcasses. Ignore the neighbours complaining they can’t sleep. The smile that shuts them up faster than any bellowed argument. The way they shrink away.”
‘The Husband Stitch’ by Carmen Maria Machado (First published online in Granta in 2014 and available to read here. Collected in Her Body And Other Parties, Graywolf/Serpent’s Tail, 2019)
This one might be familiar to lots of you (and will almost certainly have appeared on other people’s lists!). Carmen Maria Machado’s stories felt revelatory when I first read her collection Her Body and Other Parties. I love how it starts with directly addressing the reader, like she’s directing the staging of a play, giving you instructions on what to see in your mind’s eye and hear in your head that you can choose to obey or ignore. Her work has so much confidence and swagger, it’s very charismatic!
It's this mesmerising quality of showmanship, I think, which is so appealing about her work, and which makes even the retelling of a familiar fairytale feel so startling and fresh. She even tells you, right near the start: “This isn’t how things are done, but this is how I am going to do them.”
‘Skin’ by Daniel Carpenter (First published in Manchester Climate Monthly, 2013, and available to read online here)
“He imagined for a moment, what it would be like to be a Skinship, to have spent so long in space, only to return. Space giving way to atmosphere and cloud and then the lights of cities and the cold night black of towns and villages and there, somewhere far below, hundreds of little yellow fires, guiding the way like landing beacons. Would someone be waiting for him?”
Dan is another member of our Gaslamp writers group, and his new collection of horror stories, Hunting by the River, is not to be missed. I love this story because it really showcases what his writing does best: dark, dystopian stories that never fail to twist the knife, paired with an incredibly detailed and immersive sense of place – in this case, a frightening and futuristic Manchester.
‘Alysm’ by Irenosen Okojie (First published in The London Magazine, 2021, and available online here; also published in Disturbing The Body, Boudica Press, 2021)
I discovered Irenosen Okojie’s writing when a version of this story appeared alongside mine in an anthology of speculative fiction inspired by true stories about women’s bodies, called Disturbing the Body from Boudicca Press. This story is the most impactful and affecting responses to the early days of the pandemic that I’ve come across.
“There is a lump in my throat. I sense an alien force hijacking my system. I feel it moving inside me. My body is no longer mine alone. It is a host for something malevolent.”
‘Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness’ by Reshma Ruia (Collected in Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness, Dahlia Press, 2021)
“‘Before you go, make sure to mop the bathroom floor.’ Mrs Ibrahim’s voice is distracted.
‘Yes, madam,’ Mrs Pinto says. They both know she has cleaned the entire house from attic to cellar that very morning.”
Reshma and I have the same publisher for our short story collections, the small but mighty Dahlia Press, run by the brilliant Farhana Shaikh. I’ve heard Reshma read this story a few times at various literary events and I’m always excited to hear it again – I feel like I get more from it every time. The characters feel so real and fully formed that this little story packs as much into it as some whole novels, but leaves you wanting to turn the page and read on.
‘Rebecka’ by Karin Tidbeck (First published in Swedish in Vem är Arvid Pekon, Man av Skugga Förlag, 2010, and in English in Jagannath, Cheeky Frawg, 2012; reprinted in Nightmare, 2014, where it is available to read, here)
“I don’t know why I remained her friend. It’s not like I got anything out of it. It was the worst kind of friendship, held together by pity.”
Karin Tidbeck’s wonderful collection Jagganath was one of the first contemporary short story collections I owned – long before I ever thought about publishing one myself.
This story is deliciously horrible – about a woman who God isn’t allowing to kill herself, no matter how hard she tries. Like all the best horror stories, it’s got a brilliant sting in its tale, and an ending that makes you go ‘ah’.
‘Simon Wants To Be A Magician’ by Michael Conley (First published in Everyday Fiction, 2023, and available to read online here)
“After lunch, the teacher asks: ‘Children, is it possible to make something invisible and, if so, how might you achieve that?’”
Another story that was easy to choose because it’s unforgettable – but that is a common feature of Michael Conley’s work! He’s an absolute master of creating memorable and iconic characters in just a few words, and there’s often a brilliant twist waiting for you just when you think you’ve got your bearings.
It’s so tempting to quote the last line of this tiny flash fiction, but I won’t, because it’s much more fun if you read it yourself.
‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ by M. R. James (Originally published in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Edward Arnold, 1910)
Lots of you will already know this one… in my opinion, it’s one of the finest ghost stories ever written. I also recommend the absolutely wonderful 2013 BBC adaptation starring John Hurt and Gemma Jones, which still keeps me up at night when I think about it!
‘There Is No-One In The Lab Tonight But Mice’ by Tania Hershman (Collected in Some of Us Glow More Than Others, Unthank Books, 2017)
“The scientists are painting. The scientists have taken up sculpture, dancing, rock-climbing, abseiling. No-one knows why the scientists are on strike. Not just some scientists, but every scientist.”
Another very good friend of mine, who has also taught me in many inspiring and sometimes disconcerting writing workshops over the years, and from whom I’ve learned so much about craft and curiosity and letting go of expectations and most especially the word ‘should’.
I wanted to leave you with this story which really lodged itself in my imagination, and both reveals and obscures its message in all the right ways. The whole collection it comes from opened my mind to new forms that a short story could take and things it could ask of its readers. Order yourself a copy, you won’t regret it.
Abi Hynes is drama and fiction writer based in Manchester, UK. Her debut short story collection, Monstrous Longing, was published by Dahlia Press in 2023 and has just been longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She won the Cambridge Short Story Prize in 2020, and her fiction has appeared in many journals, magazines and anthologies. She has also written widely for stage, screen and radio; including a major adaptation of Anne of Green Gables for Audible starring Catherine O’Hara, Victor Garber and Sandra Oh.
* You can browse the full searchable archives of A Personal Anthology, with over 3,000 story recommendations, at www.apersonalanthology.com.
* A Personal Anthology is curated by Jonathan Gibbs, author of two novels, Randall, and The Large Door, and a book-length poem, Spring Journal. He teaches on the MA/MFA Creative Writing at City, University of London.
* And if you are interested in contributing your own Personal Anthology to the project, then please let me know by replying to this email. I’m always on the lookout for guest editors!
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