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 turning* by 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.