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Selected Shorts Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Selected Shorts books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: March 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Selected Shorts series? Start with "For Better and for Worse (By: Symphony Space)" (1993) and follow publication order through all 25 books.
The complete Selected Shorts reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order

For Better and for Worse (By: Symphony Space)
1993

Food Fictions (By: Symphony Space)
2007

Travel Tales (By: Symphony Space)
2007

Edith Wharton (By: Symphony Space)
2007

Pets! (By: Symphony Space)
2007

Tales of Betrayal (By: John Cheever,Tessa Hadley,John Biguenet,Adam Haslett,Rattawut Lapcharoensap,Symphony Space,Galina Vromen)
2007

Family Matters (By: Symphony Space)
2007

Are We There Yet? (By: Symphony Space)
2008

The William Hurt Collection (By: Richard Ford,Tobias Wolff,Aleksandar Hemon,William Hurt,Ron Carlson,Symphony Space)
2009

American Classics (By: Edgar Allan Poe,Joyce Carol Oates,Eudora Welty,John Cheever,Alice Walker,Donald Barthelme,John Sayles,Amy Tan,Symphony Space)
2010

New American Stories (By: Sherman Alexie,Jhumpa Lahiri,Aleksandar Hemon,Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,Symphony Space)
2011

Poe! (By: Symphony Space)
2012

Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards
2000

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection
2003

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection
2004

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006
2006

Best American Fantasy
2007

The United States of McSweeney's
2009

Real Unreal
2010

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me
2010

Electric Literature No. 5
2010

Astoria to Zion
2013

Unstuck #3
2014

Lightspeed Magazine, October 2015
2015

9 Stories on the Magic of Cities
2018
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