Library Journal Best Books - Short Stories (Awarded by Library Journal)

Awards List

2025

This Is Salvaged: Stories
(*)
Vauhini Vara

Show Don't Tell: Stories
(*)
Curtis Sittenfeld

Early Stories by Tennessee Williams
(*)
Tennessee Williams

An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories
(*)
Ed Park

After Midnight
(*)
Daphne Du Maurier

Near Flesh
(*)
Katherine Dunn

Tamiami Trail
(*)
Jennifer Bannan

Winter Stories
(*)
Ingvild Rishoi

2023

Jewel Box: Stories
(*)
E. Lily Yu

I Am My Country: And Other Stories
(*)
Kenan Orhan

Sidle Creek: Stories
(*)
Jolene McIlwain

After the Funeral and Other Stories
(*)
Tessa Hadley

Disruptions: Stories
(*)
Steven Millhauser

Witness: Stories
(*)
Jamel Brinkley

Holler, Child: Stories
(*)
LaToya Watkins

Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories
(*)
Kate Atkinson

Wednesday's Child: Stories
(*)
Yiyun Li

The Hive and the Honey: Stories
(*)
Paul Yoon

House Gone Quiet: Stories
(*)
Kelsey Norris

2022

Blank Pages
(*)
Bernard Maclaverty

Heartbroke
(*)
Chelsea Bieker

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories
(*)
Leigh Newman

You Have a Friend in 10A: Stories
(*)
Maggie Shipstead

Ghost Lover: Stories
(*)
Lisa Taddeo

Learning to Talk: Stories
(*)
Hilary Mantel

Stories from The Tenants Downstairs
(*)
Sidik Fofana

Bliss Montage: Stories
(*)
Ling Ma

If I Survive You
(*)
Jonathan Escoffery

Liberation Day: Stories
(*)
George Saunders

2021

Prayer for the Living
(*)
Ben Okri

Songs for the Flames
(*)
Juan Gabriel Vasquez

That Old Country Music
(*)
Kevin Barry

Milk Blood Heat
(*)
Dantiel W. Moniz

First Person Singular
(*)
Haruki Murakami

The Souvenir Museum
(*)
Elizabeth McCracken

Filthy Animals: Stories
(*)
Brandon Taylor

Afterparties: Stories
(*)
Anthony Veasna So

Five Tuesdays in Winter
(*)
Lily King

Look For Me and I'll Be Gone: Stories
(*)
John Edgar Wideman

2020

A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories
(*)
Daniel Mason

Inheritors
(*)
Asako Serizawa

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories
(*)
Laura Van Den Berg

If I Had Two Wings
(*)
Randall Kenan

The Office of Historical Corrections
(*)
Danielle Evans

To Be a Man
(*)
Nicole Krauss

2019

Rag: Stories
(*)
Maryse Meijer

Lot: Stories
(*)
Bryan Washington

Sabrina & Corina: Stories
(*)
Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Home Remedies
(*)
Xuan Juliana Wang

Orange World and Other Stories
(*)
Karen Russell

The World Doesn't Require You: Stories
(*)
Rion Amilcar Scott

Fly Already: Stories
(*)
Etgar Keret

Driving in Cars with Homeless Men: Stories
(*)
Kate Wisel

2018

Zolitude
(*)
Paige Cooper

Last Stories
(*)
William Trevor

A Lucky Man: Stories
(*)
Jamel Brinkley

Fight No More: Stories
(*)
Lydia Millet

All That Is Left Is All That Matters: Stories
(*)
Mark Slouka

The Wrong Heaven
(*)
Amy Bonnaffons

Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine: Stories
(*)
Kevin Wilson

The Dogs of Detroit
(*)
Brad Felver

Friday Black: Stories
(*)
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Evening in Paradise
(*)
Lucia Berlin

Award Categories

Christian Fiction

Contemporary Romance

Crime Fiction

Crime Fiction: Mystery

Crime Fiction: Suspense

Crime Fiction: Thriller

Fantasy

Graphic Novels

Historical Fiction

Historical Romance

Horror

LGBTQIA+ Romance

Literary Fiction

Paranormal Romance

Pop Fiction

Romance

Romantasy

Science Fiction

SF/Fantasy

Short Stories

World Literature

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018