A Personal Anthology, by Heidi James
‘Auction’ by Maria Fernanda Ampuero, translated by Frances Riddle (First published in English by Words Without Borders and available to read here. Collected in Cockfight, Feminist Press/Influx, 2020)
I read to be knocked sideways, to be prodded and pricked. To feel grit under the skin. I don’t read for comfort or reassurance. This story, this collection flayed me raw.
‘The Hungry Valley’ by Kathryn Scanlan (First published in American Short Fiction 61, Winter 2016 and available to read here. Collected in The Dominant Animal, FSG/Daunt Books, 2020)
This collection of miniatures demonstrates the exquisite skill of revealing so much with so little. I could have chosen any of the short stories in this book. Epic in vision.
‘Observation’ by Wendy Erskine (Collected in Sweet Home, The Stinging Fly Press, 2018 and Picador, 2019)
The voices! The exacting details! The unsettling vacancy of modern life!
‘Let Me See You Smile’ by Lucia Berlin (Collected in A Manual for Cleaning Women, Picador, 2015)
An unflinching yet generous and warm view of a dark world.
‘Gospel Song’ by Dorothy Allison (Collected in Trash, Firebrand Books, 1988)
Rage, hate, love and a character called Shannon Pearl. It has everything.
‘Housewife’ by Amy Hempel (First published in Micro Fiction, ed. Jerome H Stern, Norton, 1986. Collected in Tumble Home, Scribner, 1998; also in The Collected Stories, Scribner 2007, and widely available online)
A splinter of sex and desire and justifying both as ART.
‘Black Flower’ by Edna O’Brien (First published in The Sunday Times, January 2011, and available to read online to subscribers here. Collected in Saints and Sinners, Faber and Faber, 2011)
People and place evoked in language that tilts and shivers.
‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own’ by Flannery O’Connor (First published in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Harcourt Brace, 1955. Collected in Complete Stories, FSG 1971, and now from Faber and Faber, 1990)
It’s Flannery O’Connor… Surely I need say no more?
‘You’re Ugly, Too’ by Lorrie Moore (First published in The New Yorker, June 1989, and available to subscribers to read here. Collected in Like Life, Knopf/Faber, 1990, and widely anthologised, including in The Book of the American Short Story, ed, Richard Ford, Granta, 1992)
If it’s good enough for Richard Ford…
‘Especially Heinous’ by Carmen Maria Machado (First published in The American Reader, Vol. 1, No. 5/6 and available to read here. Collected in Her Body and Other Parties, Graywolf, 2017, and Serpent’s Tail, 2019)
Machado’s work is experimental without sacrificing integrity or the reader. A brilliant talent. I love her work, possibly too much.
‘Short talk on The Mona Lisa’ by Anne Carson (Collected in Short Talks, Brick Books, 1992)
This whole collection is clever and understated.
‘So, Some Tempestuous Morn’ by Barbara Pym (First published in Civil to Strangers and Other Writings, Plume, 1989)
OK, so sometimes I need gentle humour and if I do, Pym is it.
Heidi James is the author of critically acclaimed novels Wounding, So the Doves (a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) and The Sound Mirror. She won The Saboteur Award for her novella, The Mesmerist’s Daughterand was a finalist in The Cinnamon Poetry Collection Prize. Her short stories, poetry and essays have been published various anthologies and magazines including, among others, We’ll Never Have Paris, Somesuch,Dazed and Confused and Galley Beggar Press. She hosts a podcast, First Graft, where she discusses the writing process with other writers.
Collaborative summer special:
As long-term subscribers will know, the newsletter goes on its holidays in July and August, BUT we like to run a collaborative Summer Special to round things off, and give people a bunch of reading suggestions for the prime reading time ahead. So if you have a favourite summer-set story you'd like to write about, then just reply to this email! Very much open to past contributors, and those yet to do so.
* You can browse the full searchable archives of A Personal Anthology, with over 1,500 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. His story ‘A Prolonged Kiss’ is longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award 2021. He is Programme Director of the MA/MFA Creative Writing at City, University of London.