Short An International Anthology of Five Centuries of Short Short Stories Prose Poems Brief Essays & Other Short Prose Forms

Short prose forms are elusive to define--one writer's prose poem is another's flash fiction or brief essay. Rather than quibble, opts for inclusiveness. Here is a dazzling array: 100s of pieces (under 1250 words) from 24 Western countries, written over five centuries by more than 200 contributors, including major authors of every era. Fables, histories, aphorisms, anecdotes, faux dictionary entries, a faux job application, hint fiction, lists, tableaus, meditations, chants, rants, and much more. Intensely pleasurable. Contributors include: Montaigne, von Kleist, Leopardi, Poe, Baudelaire, Bierce, Chopin, Stein, Jacob, Woolf, Kafka, J. Roth, Toomer, Borges, Queneau, Kunitz, Beckett, Milosz, Cortazar, Paz, Barthes, Calvino, O'Hara, Merwin, Lispector, Transtromer, Sanchez, Edson, Simic, Atwood, Valenzuela, Wideman, L. Davis, Komunyakaa, A. Carson, Forche, Harjo, Hempel, Wenderoth, Keret, B. Marcus, A. Bender, Eggers, B. Lerner, T. Brimhall.

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"Short is an important and impressive document...Alan Ziegler, editor of Short, is the right man for the job." HTMLGiant

"Alan Ziegler's Short delivers the most comprehensive overview of short prose, prose poetry and prose essays to be published in the last ten years. Comprising pieces dating as far back as the year 1500, this collection is perhaps the best introduction to short prose that both experienced and inexperienced readers could wish for." HTMLGiant

" does an incredible amount of research and heavy lifting, presenting a cross-section of short-form prose, collecting the works of different countries and eras in the most comprehensive anthology I've yet encountered. ... Short masterfully displays the incredible diversity and creativity engendered by even the shortest works. ... From humor to heartbreak and back again, the stories and short works in Short offer a whirlwind tour exploring what the written word is capable of, the tip of an impossibly valuable iceberg." San Francisco Book Review

"[A] treasure chest of short, rich works.... I'm always grateful when anthologies give you the opportunity to unabashedly open to a random page and land on something awesome and unexpected. Ziegler's collection includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, combinations of all of the above or none of the above; very old, kind of old, new, and not-so-new; canonized, widely-known, obscure, and the obscure-but-recognizable. It's all here in this book ...." Publishers Weekly Tumblr

"...[Short

"...the intriguing new collection....offers his readers an enticing foray into the pleasures of brief, compressed works." American Book Review

offers the tradition and glorious present of these popular forms that stretch and defy genre. From 1500 to present, hundreds of pieces. Inventive, entertaining, and addictive.

Alan Ziegler's books include Love at First Sight and The Writing Workshop Note Book. Professor of Writing at Columbia University, he has taught the short prose form for twenty-five years. He lives in New York.