Celebrating short stories (as always)

It’s been great to see short stories getting so much attention lately — from the 2009 Pulitzer in Fiction going to Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge to Oprah’s newest pick, Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them, to the National Book Award finalists, which include Bonnie Jo Campbell for her collection American Salvage and Daniyal Mueunuddin for In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. And as always, Andrew’s Book Club highlights two to three story collections every month (for November: Alice Munro and Laura van den Berg).

And I enjoyed seeing yet another reading expert celebrate the short story: Nina Sankovitch (who has read a book a day for the past year, and counting) recently made the argument, in The Huffington Post, that even if we think we don’t have time for reading, we can always find time to read a short story — and she includes a terrific list of suggestions.

So whether it’s just before bed, on your bus ride home, or during your wait at the doctor’s office, take those minutes you think you don’t have and devote them to a story (or two, if you’re at the doctor’s office; or three, if you’re in traffic) … and enjoy.