My Anthology

I love short story anthologies. Love them. I think it goes back to my school days when we received our new reader every year filled with stories. I always managed to read it within a few days, and typically a teacher would let me “teach” one or two of the stories every year.
There is nothing more annoying to me than reading a short story collection by a writer where every story is told in the same tone, tense, style, etc – just disguised as a different experience. I like writers who can mix it up. With that said, my last few short stories have been in third person – a kind of detached, “know it all” voice. Odd, since first person is my true love.
The two major anthologies I have been working through the last couple of years are: “An Introduction to Fiction” edited by X.J. Kennedy (almost done with this one) and “The Harper Anthology of Fiction” edited by Sylvan Barnet. I also read literary magazines, other anthologies, short story collections, but those two have been on my nightstand the last couple of years.
Anyway, it has always been a dream of mine that when I become an established writer, someone will ask me to edit an anthology. Most anthologies I know have the usual selection (some which are on my list, but damn are they good). I keep these written down in my journal and keep adding to them. So, just in case my journal gets lost one day, here’s my list:

“Rich” Ellen Gilchrist
“The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin
“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson
“Sunday in the Park” Bel Kaufman
“Revelation” Flannery O’Connor
“A&P” John Updike
“Everyday Use” Alice Walker
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Necklace” Guy de Maupassant
“Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison
“Everything That Rises Must Converge” Flannery O’Connor
“The Story of the Bad Little Boy” Mark Twain
“The Story of the Good Little Boy” Mark Twain
“The Mysterious Stranger” Mark Twain
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce
“Her Second Career” Ayn Rand
“Good Country People” Flannery O’Connor
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” Sherman Alexie
“Mr. Green” Robert Olen Butler
“Just Like Dogs” Dylan Thomas
“Eurotrash” Irvine Welsh
“The Fifty-Dollar Bill” Donald Hall
“He” Katherine Ann Porter
“The Bet” Anton Chekhov
“A Visit of Charity” Eudora Welty
“Expelled” John Cheever
“The Appointment in Samara” W. Somerset Maughan
“To Build a Fire” Jack London
“Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Dozen Kisses” C.M. Decarmin
“The Waltz” Dorothy Parker
“You Were Perfectly Fine” Dorothy Parker
“The Veldt” Ray Bradbury
“The Monkey Look” F.X. Toole
“A Hunger Artist” Franz Kafka
“The Greatest Man in the World” James Thurber
“Who’s Irish” Gish Jen
“Gryphon” Charles Boxter
“Volunteers are Shining Stars” Curtis Sittenfeld

I know this list will keep on growing… as I remember forgotten, and discover new ones.