On Recent British and Irish Short Stories Great for Teaching

Help Me Put Together a Reading List

In my more extreme moments of curriculum design, now I’m running a Creative Writing MA, I consider only having short stories by contemporary British writers.

That’s what I wrote a few days ago.

In relation to Alan Bennett, but also (in my head) to the American Sense of Space.

It’s very easy to present students with a US-dominated view of writing, which means they end up with a US-slanted view.

I was soon afterwards asked who some of these writers on my curriculum would be?

I’ve made a start, but it’s already become clear I need to make this collaborative.

And so, I need your suggestions.

Along with British (English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish) stories, I think it would be ridiculous and self-harming not to include stories from Ireland.

Here is my draft list, with links where possible —

• Ruby Cowan, ‘Biophile’, This Paradise, Boilerhouse Press, 2020

• Thomas Morris, ‘All the Boys’, we don’t know what we’re doing, Faber & Faber, 2015

• Claire-Louise Bennett, ‘The Lady of the House’, POND, Fitzcarraldo, 2015

• Ali Smith, ‘May’, The Whole Story, Hamish Hamilton, 2003

• Courttia Newland, ‘Sound Boys’ from Being Dad: Sound Boys ed. Dan Coxon, Tangent Books, 2016

• Kevin Barry, ‘Beer Trip to Llandudno’, Dark Lies the Island, Vintage, 2013

• Zadie Smith, ‘The Embassy of Cambodia’, The New Yorker, 2013

• Helen Simpson, ‘Heavy Weather’, Dear George, Vintage, 2001

• Hilary Mantel, ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher - August 6th 1983’, The Guardian, 2014

• China Mieville, ‘Familiar’, Looking for Jake, Macmillan, 2005

But this is only a start.

There could be more horror, folk horror, sci-fi, spec fic, crime...

I’ve taught many of these stories already, so know they are good for the workshop.

What have I missed?

Which stories would you suggest were included?