Four free reads on the Net: It's Short Story Week

It’s Short Story week this week, which isn’t something I’ve made up to justify my love of the short story but a real thing that happened from 17 to 23 November.

The website has lots of links about reading, listening to and writing short stories: National Short Story Week

As a big fan of short stories, I’m going to look at links to short stories available for free on the web this week. Share your favourites (or links to your own stories) in the replies

Classic writers

The greatest Short Story writer of them all? Hard to say but Guy de Maupassant must rank in the top 5. Download *181* short stories by a variety of translators here

Master story teller, Stephen King, (who wrote a story called Crouch End [pdf] ) has a new short story in The New Yorker called Premium Harmony

New writers

Not sure if Neil Gaiman counts as classic or new but he does put a fair few short stories online for free, including this one A Study in Emerald [pdf]

If you like a bit of near future fiction (or dogs) this story by Elizabeth Bear might appeal

This Chance Planet

Bonus links

• Fill your days with short stories both new and classic at East of the Web

• 6 classic sci-fi short stories

Picture: British Library The Commons on Flickr