18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online - Book Riot
18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online - Book Riot |
- 18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online - Book Riot
- Shippers, Recs and OTPs: A History of Fan Fiction - Book Riot
- La Jolla Playhouse is set to wow Arts District Liberty Station with latest Without Walls Festival - The San Diego Union-Tribune
| 18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online - Book Riot Posted: 19 Mar 2019 12:00 AM PDT When I have no idea what to read, I find a bunch of free short stories online, save them onto the Pocket app, and read them as if I've compiled my own short story collection. Like a music playlist I create to match a mood, I create short story playlists to break a book slump, or to sample a bunch of different authors' writing.
As to where to find great stories, The New Yorker stories are generally best, but require a subscription if you read too many in a month. I also like Narrative Magazine, which will ask you for an email, but their stories are free too. Tor of course has some great free stuff, and you can find most of the classics through Gutenberg. The stories on this list that are not from any of these publications, I found through simple Google searches. If I'm interested in an author, but don't necessarily want to read a whole book, I look to see if they have any short fiction available that I can read first. From this list, my favorites are Zadie Smith and Italo Calvino's stories. I'd never read Zadie Smith, but after loving "The Embassy of Cambodia" I started On Beauty (a 500 page book) and I absolutely love it. Both stories satisfied a reading itch I needed scratched. Here are a few of my favorite free short stories you can read online right now. "The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis BorgesThe world is a library that contains all the books that have ever been written, but most of them are indecipherable. Many people venture to the library to find the meaning of life. It reminded me of Terry Pratchett's Discworld library. "Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species—the unique species—is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret." "The Lottery" by Shirley JacksonThis used to be my favorite short story, and I might only think that because I read it when I was a freshman in high school and I remember being shocked by the ending. It's always stayed with me. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'ConnorAnother story with an ending that you won't forget anytime soon. O'Connor was a master. If you've never read any of her work I would start here. "In the Penal Colony" by Franz KafkaIt's a chilling story. A man known as the Traveller is visiting a foreign penal colony where he is shown a special machine used to execute prisoners. The machine inscribes the prisoner's crime onto their body until they die (kind of sounds familiar if you've read the fifth Harry Potter book). It takes twelve hours of torture before the prisoner dies. I told you it was chilling! "The Devil in America" by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor)Kai Ashante Wilson has quite a talent. This ties present day police brutality towards African Americans to post-emancipation America and a family of freed slaves that are living with the Devil that followed them from Africa. "The City Born Great" by N.K. Jemisin (Tor)Cities, once they are old enough, must be born. New York City is ready to be born, and must be led into the world by a reluctant midwife. "Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor (Lightspeed Magazine)Okorafor is a wonderful storyteller, and if you've never read her books, this would be a great place to start. And if you like this short story, Binti: The Complete Trilogy was released in February! "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Lightspeed Magazine)Oh, you've never read Ted Chiang? Well, you must go out now and read this story and then read Stories of Your Life and Others and his new collection Exhalation: Stories, which comes out in May. I was shocked by how good and complex his writing was. I had no idea that the movie The Arrival was based on one of his short stories.  "The Daughters of the Moon" by Italo Calvino (The New Yorker)I don't know. It's either Zadie Smith's "The Embassy of Cambodia" or this story that is my favorite on the list… I can't decide. I think it's this story. A story about the people of Earth deciding to throw away the Moon. It's a story of consumerism. Luckily, I own "The Complete Cosmicomics", so I can continue reading Calvino's magnificent short story collection. "The Embassy of Cambodia" by Zadie Smith (The New Yorker)After you read "The Devil in America" read this story and see if you can find the parallels. This was my first time reading Zadie Smith because I'd always heard mixed reviews, but if her longer fiction is anything like this short story, I'm in love. If you need help figuring out where to start with Zadie Smith's books, check out our Reading Pathway guide to Zadie Smith. "Sweetness" by Toni MOrrison (The New Yorker)A prelude to Morrison's book God Help the Child, this is the story of Bride's mother, and her rationale for raising her daughter in a loveless home. "Girls, At Play" by Celeste Ng (Bellevue Literary Review)"This is how we play the game: pink means kissing; red means tongue. Green means up your shirt; blue means down his pants. Purple means in your mouth. Black means all the way." The first four sentences of this short story sent chills down my spine. A superbly told story of the extremes of girlhood and adolescence; the pressures girls face as they get older. "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" by Haruki Murakami (Genius)Love at first sight, if you believe love is predestined rather than a choice. Fated love, to me, no matter how hard my heart becomes, still seems ridiculously romantic. I haven't read Murakami in a long time but now I'm itching to pick up one of his books (I really want to read 1Q84, but it's soooo long!). "Chechnya" by Anthony Marra (Narrative Magazine)This was Anthony Marra's first published short story, and works as an outline for his novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon. It's the kind of story you read while holding your breath. "The Fruit of My Woman" by Han Kang (Granta)This story was written in 1997 before the publication of The Vegetarian. The two stories share many of the same themes, and it's evident that this story served as a blueprint for the later book. In "The Fruit of My Woman" the wife is slowly turning into a tree (something that also comes up in The Vegetarian). The allusions to Daphne turning herself into a laurel tree to escape the advances of Apollo are hard to miss, but there's no clear indication that Daphne was an actual influence on either story. Han Kang can do no wrong in my eyes. "A Lady's Maid" by Sarah Gailey (Barnes & Noble)I love Sarah Gailey. This is a great introduction if you're unfamiliar with her work. It's Victorian London with androids—so much to love! A hot and bothered story about a house falling in love with the girl who lives in the attic. I loved everything about this story. This is included in Johnson's short story collection, Fen, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Also, the writing style reminded me of Samantha Hunt. "Hollow" by Breece D'J Pancake (The Atlantic)Breece D'J Pancake died when he was 26. He was from West Virginia, and I would label his writing "grit-lit". This story was almost too gritty for me. He's the kind of writer that other writers love. His short story collection has a blurb from Joyce Carol Oates. Want more short stories? Check out our post on the 100 best short story collections! By signing up you agree to our Terms of ServiceEnter to win $250 to spend at Barnes and Noble!  Book Riot has Avada Kedavra-ed the comments section, so please come chat with us on Twitter or Instagram!  |
| Shippers, Recs and OTPs: A History of Fan Fiction - Book Riot Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:42 AM PDT What does fan fiction mean to you? Fandom—in my head, I've always thought of the word as a fan kingdom, like our own obsessive mini-worlds—is a labour of love. It's a critical way of devouring beloved characters, examining what could—should—be different. As a teen, I got into fanfic partially because I was bored of constantly being told by media that only men and women could feel chemistry together. I knew it wasn't true, because I felt all sorts of feelings for other women, and fan fiction was a way for me to write that wrong (get it?). Even before fan fiction expanded into the queerfest it can be, it was still about fixing or expanding on aspects of a fandom that felt lacking. In Here We Are: Feminism For the Real World, Brenna Clarke Gray points out the choosing your own path aspect to fandom: "…take those characters you love and reinvent their situations, bend their race and gender, and experiment with their sexuality." Basically, take those characters and play. Fan fiction has more recently gone mainstream, with articles popping up in The New Yorker and The Guardian. No longer are these stories being furtively written (or read) under cloaks of late night secrecy. Fan fiction writers have published books based on the borrowed characters (names changed, naturally), or their own original fiction. It's used as a plot device in YA novels such as Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl and Chris Colfer's Stranger than Fanfiction. It has become so blasé to be known for writing fanfic, in fact, that published authors such as S.E. Hinton and Neil Gaiman even admit to it—writing Supernatural and Chronicles of Narnia fics, respectively. The Early DaysThe OG fan fiction fandom is widely known to be Star Trek, but the history goes further back than that. As Lev Grossman writes in fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea comes from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, while Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead tells the stories of two side characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Sherlock Holmes has continued to be popular in fan fiction, with authors from J.M. Barrie to Anthony Horowitz dreaming up adventures for the famous detective. Why Do So Many People Love Fanfic?It can be a wonderful tool for burgeoning authors, giving them a safe space to hone their skills and providing keen readers to offer feedback, free editing, and collaboration. The characters are already built, so it's easier to focus on aspects like plot and style. Also, the community is mostly women, and usually very gay-positive. When I had no out gay friends in real life, I knew some through fandoms (I got very into Velvet Goldmine fanfic at the end of high school. Brian/Curt 4 Life!)
Basic TermsAngst, AU/alternate universe, Fluff, Smut, Sillyfic, Darkfic. See this for more. Terms Requiring More Explanation
An Intro to Important FandomsStar Trek"To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…" is the tagline that launched a thousand slash ships. According to fic, Star Trek fanfic began in 'zines. Fans found the dynamic between Kirk and Spock engaging and, since no female characters were shown as equals to either of the show's leading men, the best way to explore romance with either character was to pair them together. Slowly, these stories became known within the fandom itself, and creator Gene Roddenberry acknowledged the slash pairing's existence in 1979. In 1975, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, and Joan Winston co-wrote Star Trek Lives!, a book which examined the fan culture of the show. It had a whole chapter about fanfic, and was a legitimate reference source with a forward by Roddenberry. The X-FilesThis show was deliciously quirky, terrifyingly dark, and as an added bonus it played with gender roles. Fans were either desperate for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to get together ('shippers) or they staunchly wanted them kept apart. The show treated Mulder and Scully as equals (mostly), still rare at that time in pop culture. Buffy the Vampire SlayerNoteworthy for the fact that Whedon and the rest of the show writers regularly perused their show's official message board, The Bronze. Along with defending their writerly decisions, the show creators could tease future plots and take in information about what fans were clamouring for. Harry PotterWhere do you start with this one? Fans are passionate about Harry Potter—there are theme parks, movies, movie prequels, themed balls, costumes, wands, books about the books, bands that play "wizard rock", socks, T-shirts and many websites. You could definitely devote an entire book to the history of HP fandom, with its various dramas, pairings and breakout stars. The devotion of its fanbase led to the creation of sites like MuggleNet and FictionAlley, and some writers became successful YA novelists (Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan). J.K. Rowling's world was perfect for fanfic, packed with more characters than it had time to properly develop (Draco Malfoy! Remus Lupin! etc). Harry/Draco is one of the most popular slash pairings in fandom, and Tom Felton, who played Draco in the films, recently admitted to being a Harry/Draco fan. Twilight and Fifty Shades of GreyTwilight's sparkly, sexy vampire romance lead to E L James's love-it-or-hate-it novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Originally posted to Fanfiction.net in 2009, then-named Master of the Universe was popular as a Twilight fic. It wasn't long after that James renamed the characters and removed the most obvious references before publishing the novel, which took off in a big way. James's backstory as a fanfic writer was a big catalyst to fanfic's mainstream introduction. Do authors get angry about it? Yes, some. Anne Rice and Diana Gabaldon? They are not into it. Some creators argue that it's illegal and can compromise their rights. This backlash has led to the 2007 creation of The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a nonprofit organization by and for fanfic writers. Their work includes projects like Archive of Our Own (AO3) and providing legal advocacy. In 2019, OTW won a Hugo Award for Best Related Work at the Hugo Awards—a huge deal, given that the Hugos are the most coveted awards in science fiction. AO3's scope is incredible, compiling obscure and mega-fandoms alike. You can find fanfics about foreign movies like Y Tu Mama Tambien and big budget superhero blockbusters. There are sections for anime and manga, boy bands and actors, comics and cartoons. The word is out, and fanfic is expanding. Where will fanfic go from here? In the end, it's all about communities and, as long as fandoms exist, fan fiction will be a part. Not to mention that given how messy online interactions can get, it's lovely that fan fiction communities are mostly positive as they write, edit, and support each other. You can join at any time and don't have to wait to be discovered—just start writing. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service Book Riot has Avada Kedavra-ed the comments section, so please come chat with us on Twitter or Instagram!  |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2019 04:24 PM PDT If you have any trepidation about leaping feet-first into the gleeful riot of unpredictable, unconventional performance that is the La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival, rest assured: The artists are right there with you. "The WOW Festival is meant to explore what the boundaries of theater are, and I think part of it is embracing the frayed edges that come with it," says the artist David Israel Reynoso, speaking of the spirit of experimentation that animates this biennial centerpiece of the Playhouse's Without Walls program. "This is something we're trying out, and if you're willing to play along, you'll have a great time. We're assembling this festival, but then we're all going to jump off a cliff — and hope we take flight!" Reynoso's immersive piece "Las Quinceañeras" (created with Optika Moderna) is one of about two dozen works in this fourth edition of the fest, which runs Thursday through Sunday. Advertisement And speaking of taking a leap: The event unfolds in an entirely new location this year, the Arts District Liberty Station. Playhouse artistic chief Christopher Ashley says the fact so many artists already make their homes at the onetime military facility was a big factor in choosing to move WOW there. Another was its capacity to house the whole fest in one concentrated place: "One of the things we've learned is there's a lot of value in having things close enough together to have a critical mass" of activity, which Ashley says helps make the experience "improvisatory and impulsive" for an audience. "I find that incredibly exciting." (Key tip: The Show Imaging Festival Stage will serve as festival headquarters, offering live music as well as food and drink.) Advertisement "And once we made the decision to put (the festival) at the old Naval Training Center," Ashley adds, "so many of the artists got inspired by the nautical history and the Navy history." Teresa Sapien, the Playhouse associate producer who is curating and producing the event for the first time, has worked on past editions of the fest and says there are now Playhouse patrons "who seek out WOW programming as their preferred art form." She touts the broad mix of family-friendly and more adventurous fare at the festival (with many free events) and notes that while "there are definitely people who say, 'We want to see everything!,' not all the experiences are going to be for everyone." The key thing to remember: "There's no wrong way to experience WOW."  A scene from "Tall Tales of the High Seas," part of the 2019 La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival. (Courtesy La Jolla Playhouse) Without Walls FestivalWhen: Today through Sunday (check with theater for specific performance dates/times and locations) Where: Arts District Liberty Station, Point Loma Tickets: Free to $20 Phone: (858) 550-1010 Advertisement Online: wowfestival.org The WOW Lineup (Note: Some shows with limited capacity are already sold out.) "Allegory," by Sammi Cannold and Emily Maltby, with music by Ari Afsar (New York), based on "The American Woman: Six Periods of American Life," by Hazel MacKaye: A reimagining of a women's suffrage pageant originally performed in 1913 on the steps of the U.S. Treasury building. "As Far As My Fingertips Take Me," by Tania El Khoury (Beirut/London): An audience member encounters a refugee through a gallery wall in this interactive work. "Boats," by Polyglot Theatre (Australia): Kids power lightweight boats with their feet and serve as "crew" on a high-seas adventure. "Calafia at Liberty," by Wetsuit Collective (San Diego): This exploration of the myth surrounding Queen Calafia unfolds around the land-locked vessel USS Recruit. "The Golem of La Jolla — Excerpts in Concert: a modern parable spoken and sung," music by Michael Roth, libretto by Allan Havis (San Diego): Amid unrest on the verge of the 2020 election, conflict erupts over employing a golem — "the ultimate bouncer" — to protect threatened mosques and synagogues. Advertisement "Hall Pass," by Blindspot Collective (San Diego): Participants choose their own adventures in this series of short plays and musicals that delve into the highs and lows of high school courtesy of the Class of 2022. "Hidden Stories," by Begat Theater (France): In this site-specific "invisible performance," audience members (wearing headphones) "eavesdrop" on the thoughts of passersby while on a roving odyssey. "How High the Moon," by Mike Sears (San Diego): The local playwright's modern folk tale explores, through live music, puppetry and more, the story of blue-collar Buck and Erma and their quest to retrieve the moon. "Ikaros," by Third Rail Projects (New York): This audience-centered walking tour, commissioned by the Playhouse, draws on the sights, sounds and scents of a desert garden path as well as the roar of jets from the nearby airport and the mythic imagery of Icarus.  "Inclusion," by San Diego Circus Center. (Rob Riingen Photography) "Inclusion," by San Diego Circus Center (San Diego): A celebration and exploration of difference in its myriad forms, as expressed through the boundary-crossing, inclusive art of the circus. "A Midsummer Night's Dream," by San Diego Ballet (San Diego — Liberty Station): Shakespeare takes wing under the stars in the Bard-based ballet, unfolding amid real gardens in a 360-degree experience. "Pandora and the Jar of Hope," by Theatre Arts School of San Diego (San Diego — Liberty Station): Employing puppetry, dance, music and more, this project explores what happens when Pandora unwittingly sets a litany of woes loose upon the world, leaving only hope to hang onto. Directed and written by Courtney Corey and Wendy Maples; music by Matthew Armstrong. "PDA," by People of Interest (San Diego): The documentary dance-theater piece features real-life performer couples, and examines the history and public boundaries of their relationships. "Peregrinus," by Teatr KTO (Poland): The poetry of T.S. Eliot informs this "wildly kinetic," 45-minute roving spectacle that depicts a day in the lives of "people whose existence is summed up by the journey between home and work."  "Portals: Interactive Connected Trees" by Matan Berkowitz. (Courtesy La Jolla Playhouse) "Portals: Interactive Connected Trees," by Matan Berkowitz (Israel): An interactive art installation that "turns trees into portals of nonverbal communication," as they trigger each other to light up and reach a state of nirvana together. "Las Quinceañeras," by David Israel Reynoso/Optika Moderna (San Diego — Liberty Station): The creators of "Waking La Llorona" return with this Playhouse-commissioned, multisensory exploration of the famed rite of passage for teenage Latinas; "paranormal opticians" guide the participant through multiple quinceañeras in a "hallucinogenic journey into the early 1990s." "Senior Prom," by San Diego Dance Theater (San Diego — Liberty Station): Some 40 senior-citizen dancers perform in a wide variety of "prom-like activities," including a crowning of a king and queen. "She Buried the Pistol," by Lydia Blaisdell and the Hearth Theater (New York): This one-woman show explores the difficult hidden history of Blaisdell's own great-grandmother, and "how to tell the story of someone erased from the records of polite society." "Tall Tales of the High Seas," by Australia's Strange Fruit (Australia): Three eccentric "mariners" perform this piece atop 16-foot "sway poles," displaying "an arsenal of spectacular physical feats." "Theater on the Move," by Oracle Performing Arts (San Diego): A pop-up venue for 12 audience members will host 10 separate five-minute plays in repertory throughout the fest. "¡Vuela!," by Inmigrantes Teatro (Mexico): Four battered birds attempt to reunite with their flock as a hurricane approaches in this "play about solidarity, teamwork and the ability to adapt and put on a brave face despite life's difficulties." "Without a Net," by Malashock Dance (San Diego — Liberty Station): This "multidimensional, immersive and participatory experience" draws on the theme of a down-at-the-heels traveling circus, and features an interactive photo booth, sideshow acts and more. "Written in Stone," by Backyard Renaissance Theatre (San Diego): "Hidden corners" of Stone Brewing's Liberty Station Bistro & Gardens host performances of five new 10-minute plays commissioned by the Playhouse from the local troupe, the La Jolla theater's most recent company-in-residence. The playwrights are: Mashuq Deen, Shairi Engle, Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, Daria Miyeko Marinelli and Marisela Treviño Orta.  |
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