There is a whole world of brilliant short stories waiting to be discovered on the library shelves. Our staff have found some of the best local, international and classic stories to awaken your imagination!

Find inspiration for your own short story writing with newly released collections such as Gods of want by K-Ming Chang or Dead-end memories by Banana Yoshimoto.

Enjoy writing from favourite local authors with The reasons I won't be coming by Elliot Perlman and Merciless gods by Christos Tsiolkas, or learn from the masters like Stone mattress by Margaret Atwood or What we talk about when we talk about love by Raymond Carver. 

Ask us to show you where to find the best short stories next time you visit the library. 

Find out more about the Boroondara Literary Awards.

Contemporary Short Stories

Gods of want by K-Ming Chang

Sarahland by Sam Cohen

An exciting and vivid inner life* by Paul Dalla Rosa

Life without children by Roddy Doyle

Happy stories, mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu

Everything feels like the end of the World by Else Fitzgerald

Out there by Kate Folk

Here be leviathans by Chris Flynn

Shit Cassandra saw by Gwen E. Kirby

Metamorphosis by Penelope Lively

Illuminations by Alan Moore

The first person singular* by Haruki Murakami

Life ceremony* by Sayaka Murata

Perma frost* by SJ Norman

The teeth of a slow machine by Andrew Roff

Send nudes by Saba Sam

You have a friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead

Ideas of heaven by Joan Silber

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

Ghost lover* by Lisa Taddeo

Filthy animals by Brandon Taylor

Dead-end memories by Banana Yoshimoto

Australian Short Stories

Danged black thing* by Eugen Bacon

Shadowboxing by Tony Birch

The secret lives of men* by Georgia Blain

Cracking the spine: ten short Australian stories and how they were written eds. Julie Chevalier and Bronwyn Mehan

Readings and writings: forty years in books eds. Jason Cotter and Michael Williams

Only the animals* by Ceridwen Dovey

Another Australia ed. Winnie Dunn

Choose somebody else: a collection of short stories by Yvonne Fein

Under stones by Bob Franklin

Stories: the collected short fiction by Helen Garner

Women I know by Katerina Gibson

The fireflies of autumn: and other tales of San Ginese by Moreno Giovannoni

Meanjin: fine fiction 1980 to now ed. by Jonathan Green 

A few days in the country: and other stories by Elizabeth Harrower

Henry Lawson treasury by Henry Lawson

The storyteller: selected stories by Serge Liberman

The high places* by Fiona McFarlane

Collected short fiction by Gerald Murnane

The reasons I won't be coming by Elliot Perlman

Bloodrust and other stories by Julia Prendergast

Melbourne subjective: an anthology of contemporary Melbourne writing ed. by Patricia Poppenbeek

If you’re happy by Fiona Robertson

Rumpus room and other stories from the suburbs by Tim Ross

This all come back now: an anthology of First Nations speculative fiction ed. Mykaela Saunders

Heritage: and other stories by Dorothy Simmons

The puzzleheaded girl by Christina Stead

Merciless gods by Christos Tsiolkas

Between two worlds: 30 powerful voices, SBS Emerging Writers' Competition judged by Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani

The turningby Tim Winton

Classic Short Stories

Stone mattress by Margaret Atwood

Fictions (Ficciones) by Jorge Luis Borges

The illustrated man by Ray Bradbury

The bloody chamber by Angela Carter

What we talk about when we talk about love by Raymond Carver

Stories of your life and others by Ted Chiang

Drown by Junot Diaz

Dubliners* by James Joyce

Unaccustomed earth* by Jhumpa Lahiri

The great novels and short stories of Somerset Maugham by W. Somerset Maugham

A good man is hard to find and other stories by Flannery O'Connor

Civil to strangers: and other writings by Barbara Pym

For Esme with love and squalor by J. D. Salinger

Reserve a book on our list

To reserve a book, click the title and use your membership number and PIN to place a reservation.

Titles with an asterisk (*) are also available from our eBook collection.

More recommended reading

To view booklists on a variety of subjects, visit Booklists from our librarians.

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