A mother dog sets out on a perilous journey to save the runt of her litter. This is an interesting post-apocalyptic story as seen from the perspective of dogs who have taken…
Category: Story a Day 2022
“Hare’s Breath” by Maria Haskins
A girl is puzzled by her friend’s mysterious disappearance and apparently magical origins. This is a beautiful and haunting story that weaves together fantasy, myth, and a horrible true history of exploitation.
“No Stronger Than a Flower” by Robert Aickman
A woman seeks advice on changing her appearance at her husband’s suggestion, and transforms herself beyond his ability to comprehend. Like most of the Aickman stories I’ve read, this one is subtly…
“Just a Little Fever” by Sheila Heti
A bank teller starts up a May-December romance with a customer and ruminates about it. Occasionally “The New Yorker” runs a story that makes me think, “I’m really glad I subscribe to…
“Gwilan’s Harp” by Ursula Le Guin
A celebrated harper loses her instrument in an accident, and follows a domestic path that is no less musical than her previous life. This is a lovely and poetic story about music…
“She Unnames Them” by Ursula K. LeGuin
A woman (possibly Eve?) liberates animals, and herself, from their common names, and walks off into a world of poetry and specificity. This story has the feel of a fable or parable,…
“The Giaconda of the Twilight Noon” by J.G. Ballard
A man recovering from eye surgery is mystified and intrigued by visions of a mysterious sea-side house, and on regaining his sight he loses the visions and, it would seem, his mind….
“Travel Guide to Spaceport Rest Stops” by Seoung Kim
An interplanetary smuggler reviews rest stops and evades the Undying Priesthood. This is a quick, fun story framed as a series of blog posts about various rest stops before becoming the story…
“The Delta at Sunset” by J.G. Ballard
An injured archeologist is mesmerized by the appearance at dusk near his camp of a hoard of snakes. Ballard does a great job of capturing the tone of the British colonial mindset…
“A Grand Day Out” by Robert Shearman
On their last day together, a husband and wife have to choose between the special and the mundane. This is a fairly realistic story with one strange wrinkle: when people are about…