A collection of short-short stories that reminds us why we read fiction: to laugh, to learn, to feel, to be discomfited and challenged, to be transported, and to make enlightening and enduring connections with the world outside our own skins.

This extraordinary collection gathers short-short stories — none longer than 1,800 words — by some of North Carolina’s best contemporary writers, including Doris Betts, Orson Scott Card, Fred Chappell, Sarah Dessen, Haven Kimmel, Robert Morgan, Lee Smith, Elizabeth Spencer, and Daniel Wallace. The stories are compulsively readable. The spellbinding elements of brevity, variety, and surprise conspire to keep readers flipping pages. Comic, tragic, magical, fantastical, provocative, disturbing, luminous, the short-short form proves a reliably elastic and dazzling medium for every writer featured. In one flash of literary artistry after another, these sixty-five established and emerging writers remind us why we read fiction: to laugh, to learn, to feel, to be discomfited and challenged, to be transported, and to make enlightening and enduring connections with the world outside our own skins. Long Story Short will appeal to legions of fans who already delight in reading many of the North Carolina authors included here and will introduce them to extraordinary writers they have not yet discovered. Contributors: Max Steele Anthony S. Abbott Daphne Athas Russell Banks Wilton Barnhardt Doris Betts Will Blythe Wendy Brenner Amy Knox Brown Bekah Brunstetter Orson Scott Card Fred Chappell Kelly Cherry Elizabeth Cox Quinn Dalton Angela Davis-Gardner Sarah Dessen Pamela Duncan Pam Durban Clyde Edgerton Tracie Fellers Ben Fountain Philip Gerard Marianne Gingher Gail Godwin Jim Grimsley Virginia Holman Randall Kenan John Kessel Haven Kimmel Carrie Knowles Telisha Moore Leigg Peter Makuck Michael Malone Doug Marlette Margaret Maron Jill McCorkle Philip McFee John McNally Heather Ross Miller Lydia Millet Katherine Min Courtney Jones Mitchell Ruth Moose Robert Morgan Shelia Moses Lawrence Naumoff Jenny Offill Elizabeth Oliver Michael Parker Peggy Payne Joe Ashby Porter Denise Rickman David Rowell John Rowell Deborah Seabrooke Dave Shaw Bland Simpson Lee Smith June Spence Elizabeth Spencer Melanie Sumner Daniel Wallace Luke Whisnant Lynn York