This weekend I had the opportunity to read some of my favorite short stories out loud to my husband. He wanted to understand my passion for writing and the most obvious way for me to explain it to him was to show him, firsthand, some of the stories that have moved me most deeply.
I've never had the opportunity to read these stories out loud. With the exception of all the picture books and chapter books that I've read out loud to my kids at bedtime, all of my reading has been a very solitary experience, so it was a thrill to be able to not only relive some of my favorite words, but to speak them, to slow down and savor them.
There are dozens and dozens of short stories that have really resonated with me over the years, but there are a few that I come back to over and over again:
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
White Angel by Michael Cunningham
Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff
The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann Beard (really an essay)
Are there any short stories that you revisit time and again?