American Short Fiction

From "one of the funniest writers in America" comes a collection of stories culled from the front lines of the millennial culture wars. Rife with failing rock bands, student loans, and participation trophies,

Spoiled Brats is about a generation of narcissists - and the well-meaning boomers who made them that way.

Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Here is the preface to 12 magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates - with unequaled grace and tenderness - the deepest feelings we have.

There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Well Lyric, Juicy, and Precious are all from around the way. They all live in Crown Heights, one of the most notorious sections of Brooklyn, but to them it's just a place they call home. Around the Way Girls 2 is a fast-paced look at the life of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

Velcro & Zippers originally appeared in the literary journal Raven Chronicles. It is also available on Kindle and in print as part of the collection Easy Money & Other Stories. True love is sweet, but it's not always meant to last. "He looked at her beautiful face and breasts, her firm abdomen, all striped by bands of light and shadow, wondering what she was doing with him, why she had stayed as long as she had. He reached across the table and touched her cheek with his fingertips, then leaned forward and kissed her lips. He sat back. She smiled." A short read with a subtle impact.

Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of listeners the world over with his best-selling Discworld series - but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's nonfiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important).

From a young age Brailynn had to face and go through so many trials. Trials you wouldn’t have believed, someone her age would be able to conquered, survived, and still remained a bit sane. The living proof of it all were her healing scars from her past. Each scar reminding her of what she had survived, and why she should remain living. Everyone has a story to tell when it comes to every scab or open wound on or inside their body. They either got it from playing too hard, running too fast, or in Brailynn’s case being abused. She tried to seem as normal as possible without drawing any ...

Absolution was written by USA Today Bestselling Author Reana Malori... Julian Saving lives is his calling, or so he thought. When doing what he loves turns into his greatest fear, the lines between black and white turn gray. A little boy who needs to be saved, and a beautiful mother he can’t stay away from, bring him back from the darkness. Life and death are a part of his daily life, but Julian must find his own road to Absolution before he loses the one person he never realized he needed. Kori Raising her son was her only focus. When their lives are shattered by a devastating event, she...

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a poet, novelist, and literary critic. He created the enchanting world of fairyland inhabited by characters like the snow-queen, the mermaid's son, ogres, dwarfs, monsters, magicians, and giants. The Pink Fairy Book contains 41 tales from Africa, Japan, Scandinavia, and Europe. They range from familiar stories like "The Snow-Queen" and "The Fir-Tree" to the obscure tales of the Tanuki. This collection contains stories like "The Cats' Elopement", The "Princess in the Chest", "Snowflake", and more....

A grieving mother calls out to her faraway son. A student forgoes the lurid appeal of dating apps in exchange for a painter’s love. The anonymous voices of queer native men converge amid violent eroticism. A man just out of prison balances the uneasy weight of family and freedom, while a professor returns home to conduct research only to be haunted by a dark specter. The stories and voices in Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut story collection are buoyed by philosophical undergirding, poetic demand, and the complex relationship between aesthetics and ethics.

Women have been doing it for ages: Trying to create playdates for their husbands to hang out, get to know one another, and become fast friends. Rarely is that ever successful. But what happens when husbands try to force friendships on their wives? And it backfires? Carly can not stand Treasure and Treasure is nauseated by Carly, despite their husbands' best efforts to encourage them to become friends.They have nothing in common, they annoy one another; not to mention there is a huge ten-year age gap between them that creates boundaries. Both women are all set to call fowl and tell their ...

Burri is a fashion designer and icon with a biochemistry background. Her latest pieces are African inspired and crafted to touch the heart. They enable wearers to absorb nanorobotic memories and recount the stories of Black lives and forgiveness. Wenda doesn’t buy it. A protest performance artist, Wenda knows exploitation when she sees it. What she’s going to do with Burri’s breakthrough technology could, in the right hands, change race relations forever.

A Spicy AMBW Interracial Romance Liya: When you're in a love drought, what would you do? Take up a new hobby? Travel somewhere you always wanted to? For me, it was hiring a male escort to accompany me for a night out in the city and all I can say, is that he was worth every penny. Kai: The first rule of being a male companion is to never let your feelings get involved with a client. It was an easy rule for me to follow, but that was until I got a request from a woman named Liya. Love Drought is a steamy interracial instalove romance that will make the perfect quickie in between longer works...

In the series of linked stories at the heart of Filthy Animals, set among young creatives in the American Midwest, a young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness.

As a 41-year-old man confronts his own mortality in this collection's title story, he recalls his Spokane Indian father's chilling death from alcoholism and diabetes. Another tale features an eccentric salesman pursuing a married woman from airport to airport. And then there's the film editor who sees nothing wrong with altering footage to fit preconceived views - until he becomes the target of media distortion.

A long-married couple is forced to confront their friend's painful past when a church revival comes to a nearby town ... A woman in an arranged marriage struggles to connect with the son she hid from her husband for years ... A well-meaning sister unwittingly reunites an abuser with his victims. Through an indelible array of lives, Yoon Choi explores where first and second generations either clash or find common ground,

(en-tan-gle-ment): noun- a complicated or compromising relationship or situation  Five couples, five stories about friendships, trust issues, forgiveness, and love that resolved over time. In Dare to Love, Sapphire and Zaiden hook up one time. Three years later, when Zaiden returns to the states, he finds out that he has a three-year-old daughter. Will they find their way back to each other, or will they remain cordial because of their daughter? In Retail Love, Manny notices Sienna. Manny has FWBs (Friends with Benefits), not relationships. Sienna falls for Manny. One night and many more ...

“The People Could Fly,” the title story in Virginia Hamilton’s prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to “fly” away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.

With heart-stopping stories by Zane, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Joy M. Copeland, Robert Fleming, Terence Taylor, Francine Lewis, Brandon Massey, and 12 other established or up-and-coming writers, Dark Dreams is a must-have contemporary anthology for fans of the supernatural.

What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart? These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically.