Open Books Challenge 2026: Short Story CollectionUnpublished

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In Speculative Los Angeles, fourteen of the city's most prophetic voices reimagine the city in very different ways. Featuring brand-new stories by: Aimee Bender, Lisa Morton, Alex Espinoza, Ben H. Winters, Denise Hamilton, Lynell George, Stephen Blackmoore, Francesca Lia Block, Charles Yu, Duane...

"Eleven storytellers chronicle their journeys from places all over the world--including Guatemala, Chad, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan--to the United States. Each story compellingly details a variety of experiences the individual immigrant or refugee had, ...

Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read! From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible...

From New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra comes this uplifting contemporary teen anthology celebrating South Asian stories and writers. From first crushes to first heartbreaks, complicated family dynamics to community relationships, this...

Science meets real-life mystery in this adventurous look at incredible unexpected finds that changed history.Secret treasures are buried all around us -- you just have to look for them!Accidental Archaeologists takes you on an adventure through time to relive some of the coolest surprise...

NYPL BEST OF THE YEAR BEST OF THE BEST, BLACK CAUCUS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION A stunning collection of oral histories from Black elders who grew up in the Jim Crow South The past is not past. We may think...

Celebrate the unheralded people and stories that helped shape the game of baseball! Meet unsung pioneers, like John "Bud" Fowler, William Edward White, and brothers Moses Fleetwood Walker and Weld Walker, four African Americans who integrated white teams decades...

From the master of Filipino crime fiction, a genre-bending collection that documents murders, disappearances, and acts of violence in stories that range from procedural crime to horror to near-future noir F.H. Batacan's first novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles, was an...

A magical collection of stories new and old spanning across all of Anne Bishop's most beloved fantasy worlds. Here, together for the first time, the shorter works of New York Times bestselling fantasy author Anne Bishop are included in one dazzling volume. A...

Beginning readers will love these spooky stories from New York Times bestselling author Max Brallier! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, aimed at children who are learning to read. With easy-to-read text, a short-story...

In a collection of personal stories and essays, award-winning and bestselling artists from Matt de la Pena and Veera Hiranandani to Max Brallier and R.L. Stine write about how hope always wins, even in the darkest of times. Where does hope live? In your family? ...

Inspired by songs from AC/DC's bestselling album, Back in Black, this anthology contains ten murder mysteries from ten bestselling writers--including a new Jack Reacher original by Andrew Child. The third collection in the Music and Murder Mystery Series, Back in Black features one story...

A collection of moving stories passed from mother to daughter recounting life during China s Cultural Revolution. In China, an entire generation s most formative years took place in remote rural areas when city-kids were sent to the countryside to become rusticated youth and partake in Mao s...

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME, NPR AND ELECTRIC LIT * A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 BY LIT HUB, THE OC REGISTER, THE MILLIONS AND MORE * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF AUGUST 2025 BY PEOPLE MAGAZINE * NAMED A MUST-READ BOOK BY THE CHICAGO REVIEW OF...

UK Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho presents twenty tiny tales--each one illustrated by a different artist, and each just ten words long--in a book that's as much a work of art as an invitation to budding writers. "Invite me in," she says, outside my tenth-story window....

"Queer, dirty, insightful, and so funny" (Andrea Lawlor), this coyly revolutionary debut story collection imagines new origins and futures for its cast of unforgettable protagonists--almost all of whom are named Sarah. FINALIST FOR THE GOLDEN POPPY AWARD FOR...

With tales of alienation told with deadpan humor and terrifying force, Unusual Fragments introduces the powerful but undertranslated peers of Osamu Dazai and Kōbō Abe A young storm-chaser welcomes a jaded woman into the eye of a storm. The last man of a peculiar...

A collection of fun and thought-provoking short stories that center faeries of varying genders and cultures, described by Kirkus Reviews as "a tantalizing taste of trickery and enchantment!" and perfect for spooky season! There's something to be said for starting...

Perfect for fans of All Out and Cemetery Boys, this anthology claims a seat at the table of fantasy literature for trans and gender nonconforming stories. Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you'll embark on fourteen different...

Travel back in time to unlock the secrets of the dinosaurs with these 12 fascinating true tales of prehistoric life! Join National Geographic on an expedition into the past to explore kids' favorite topic- dinosaurs! These dino-mite true tales are all the ideal length to be read...

A monstrous transformation within your own body.A sacrificial imprisonment.A fight to the death against an ancient evil.These stories showcase disabled characters winning against all odds.Outsmarting deadly video games, hunting the predatory monster in the woods, rooting out evil within their...

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder "Edwards combines the well-known (Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers) with the obscure (former actor Ernest Dudley) in this impressive anthology of 14 short stories featuring scientific and technical know-how...fans of TV's CSI will enjoy...

One of The Millions Most Anticipated Books & a Powell's Bookstore Staff Favorite of the Year! Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life...

"An emotion-filled collection." --Kirkus Reviews Two teens take the stage and find their voice . . . A girl learns about her heritage and begins to find her community . . . A sister is haunted by the ghosts of loved ones lost . . . There is no...

Pura Belpré Honor Book BEST OF THE YEAR Chicago Review of Books · Kirkus · Los Angeles Public Library Publishers Weekly Flying Start High Spirits is a collection of eleven...

Bestselling author Chris Grabenstein and the Mystery Writers of America bring together twenty peerless puzzles--from bestselling authors such as Peter Lerangis, Stuart Gibbs, Lauren Magaziner, Kate Milford, and, of course, Grabenstein himself--in an anthology of mystery short...

Join adorable hedgehog Bean in the first picture book of a new series full of tiny stories about big everyday adventures that will warm quills - and tickle funny bones! Meet Bean, a very tiny hedgehog. She loves ghosts, swings and a stuffie called Clem. Meet Bean's grandma. She loves strawberries,...

Princess Truly gardens and has fun with her friends, across three rhyming stories perfect for beginning readers! You can read with Acorn! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, aimed at children who are learning to read. With easy...

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as having 'an imagination that most of us would kill for,' Nalo Hopkinson and her Afro-Caribbean, Canadian, and American influences shine in truly unique stories that are gorgeously strange, inventively subversive, and vividly beautiful. In Hopkinson's first...

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020 It's time to bare it all about bodies!   We all experience the world in a body, but we don't usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as...

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BEST SELLER Kirkus Reviews Best of 2024 list, Best of Middle Grade A vibrant, heartwarming collection of 15 middle grade stories and poems that celebrates the joy, strength, and experience of Black girlhood, including stories from Ibi Zoboi, Sharon M...

Winner of the 2024 Drue Heinz Literature Prize Longlist, 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction | Winner, Minnesota Book Awards of 2025 | Winner, 2025 CLMP Firecracker Award | Finalist, 2024 Foreword Indies Award | Cowinner, The Boston Globe's Best 75 Books of 2024...

Rocky Kanaka is known the world over as a dog rescue advocate. His millions of fans follow along each week as Rocky visits shelters and finds dogs in need. He often finds the most hopeless cases-dogs that have been abandoned because they're sick or their owners can no longer care for them, or they...

A beautifully illustrated collection of 5-minute bedtime stories about the wildlife found in seas and oceans around the world. Every ocean contains a thousand secrets... In this charming anthology of children's stories by Alicia Klepeis readers will be guided under the waves...

Discover an "absurd, funny, and thought-provoking" book perfect for "anyone who has ever felt socially awkward or inadequate" (Louis Sachar, author of Holes and the Wayside School series). Dear weird toes, crooked nose, stressed out, left out, freaked out ...

Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new...

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Three-Body Problem series--now a Netflix Original series--A View from the Stars is a new collection of short fiction and nonfiction pieces. A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the...

A glimmering collection of new short fiction from the Booker Prize winner. "Lively writes with an astringent blend of sympathy and detachment, emotional wisdom and satiric wit." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times In such acclaimed novels as The...

The first LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders featuring stories for every letter of the acronym, including realistic, fantasy, and sci-fi stories by authors like Justina Ireland, Marieke Nijkamp, Alex Gino, and more! A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former...

Revolutionary and visionary, these twenty-two speculative stories edited by Lambda, Nebula and Hugo finalist Lee Mandelo explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures. USA Today Bestseller! From self-styled knights fighting in dystopian city...

A USA Today Bestseller  With an exclusive new introduction and some never-before-published pieces, a collection of greatest hits from one of the most beloved comedians of our time, Steve Martin, now starring in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. ...

What is the allure of the extreme? Who are the women who seek out and excel at sports outside the conventional, such as cave diving, wingsuit flying, or Formula 1 racing? This collection of female adventure dynamos is as fascinating as it is empowering. Thrill Seekers introduces readers to a...

"This stunning collection from one of the great writers on Black culture covers the gamut- aging, love, poverty, trauma and plenty of lightness in between."-People From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and...

Love is in the air in Serendipity, a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer. The secret admirer. The fake relationship. The matchmaker.

Under the shadow of gray clouds, three children venture into the woods, where they spot the corpse of an old man on a scaffold. Suddenly a wild figure emerges, with long fingernails and tangled hair. It is the Hattak fullih nipi foni, the bone picker, who comes to tear off rotting...

ONE OF THE WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR . From the author of the breakout novel Thistlefoot- a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us-or go monstrously wrong. "Real magic, real delight,...

"Short stories can act like little tuning forks, helping us to clarify our own values," writes guest editor Celeste Ng. "In a time when our values are being tested daily, it's hard to think of anything more important." The Best American Short Stories 2025 resonates precisely at this...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER . From We Need Diverse Books, the organization behind Flying Lessons & Other Stories, comes an inspiring middle-grade anthology that follows the loosely interconnected lives of multigenerational immigrant families, the residents at the Entrada apartment building. Edited...

Finalist for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Debut Finalist for Caine Prize For African Writing An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024 "Steady-handed and gut-punching. I'm in awe."―NoViolet Bulawayo In ten vivid, evocative...

A bold and haunting debut story collection that follows various characters as they navigate the day-to-day perils of Jim Crow racism from Diane Oliver, a missing figure in the canon of twentieth-century African American literature, with an introduction by Tayari Jones A remarkable talent...

Gilt-edged stories that slice clean through the mundanity of modern life, from the author of Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize "Ed Park is one of the funniest writers working today, and...

Meet Baloney! This book is about him. And also Peanut the horse, his best friend. There's Bizz the bumblebee, too, of course. And Krabbit. He'd rather not be here, but what can you do? In this graphic novel for young readers, watch our pig protagonist perform some questionable magic, cheer him on as...

A dazzling YA anthology that spotlights the transformative power of books while equipping teens to fight for the freedom to read, featuring the voices of 15 diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators. Books are disappearing from shelves across the country. What does this...

In a thrilling follow-up to Tasting Light, ten best-selling and award-winning masters of the form use the possible--and the premise of hope--to explore how science and technology can reshape our world and defy assumptions. At once a collection of hard science fiction for...

A cave monster . . . an abandoned demon . . . a ghost who wants to erase history . . . a killer commandant . . . These are just some of the challenges confronting the young heroes in this highly entertaining anthology. All but one of the heroes previously starred in a popular book from...

Night after night, a father spins a new, fantastical bedtime story for his daughter from the other end of the telephone. Every night, at nine o'clock, wherever he is, Mr. Bianchi, an accountant who often has to travel for work, calls his daughter and tells her a bedtime story....

When you read about war in your history book or hear about it in the news, do you ever wonder what happens to the families and children in the places experiencing war? Many families in these situations decide that they must leave their homes to stay alive. What happens to them? ...

Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestseller everyone is raving about! From the wild and wonderful imagination of the author of Dragons Love Tacos comes this hilarious, irresistible debut collection of six totally different stories with the same exact name. In these...

Hornbeam and his friends embark on three new larger-than-life adventures in the third book in the Hornbeam series, from the creators of the Gooseberry Park, Motor Mouse, and Mr. Putter and Tabby books! Hornbeam the moose, Eureka the goose, Cuddy the bull, and Adorabelle the skunk...

From theNew York Timesbestselling team behindRad American Women A-Zcomes an illustrated collection of radical and transformative political, social, and cultural movements in American history. "An engaging, fascinating, and necessary book that speaks truth to...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy "blends acerbic wit, shrewd insight and sharp-eyed observation [in this] bravura collection" (The Washington Post), including a story that revisits the main character from her iconic novel Prep<...

The perfect introduction for learning about women throughout history who dared to do the extraordinary! Inspire our new generation of women to explore, discover, persist, succeed, and fight like a girl! A great gift for girls 9-12! Women have been doing amazing, daring, and dangerous...

Edited by award-winning and bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride. Native families from Nations across the...

Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter, love, Native pride, and the world's best frybread. The road to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread...

Grotesque, deconstructive, and absolutely genius, Vladimir Sorokin's short story collection Dispatches from the District Committee is a revelatory, offbeat portrait of Soviet life beyond the propaganda and state-sponsored realism. Celebrated--and censored--for its political...

From the bestselling novelist, travel writer, and "master of the short story" (NPR) comes a brilliant new collection. The stories in Paul Theroux's fascinating new collection are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life's...

Adventure Friends Miguel and Clarke search for a lost dog in this full-color book perfect for beginning readers! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, aimed at children who are learning to read. With easy-to-read text, a short...

Once upon a time there was a Nothing. In this Nothing there was NOTHING. There weren't dragons, witches, elves, astronauts, policemen, sharks, or little mice...

Back before Odd Duck, before Robot Dreams, Sara Varon created Sweaterweather. This endearing, quirky volume is a captivating look into Varon's creative process. It combines short comics stories, essays, and journal entries, and invites the reader into the world of Sara Varon:...

Tillie Walden's complex, lyrical stories about queer love, fantasy, coming-of-age, and cats are now available in this collection. In 'The End of Summer,' Lars is battling illness and boredom in a secluded castle at the start of an endless winter with a giant cat to keep him company and fraying...

Twelve short stories in verse by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the highs and lows of love - romantic, platonic, familial, and self-love. Love can be many things - all-consuming, fleeting, vengeful, selfless, toxic, uplifting, and always, a core part of the...

"While a single sentence can turn a novel, a single word can turn a short story," writes guest editor Don Winslow. The pieces featured in this collection hinge on those small, exacting moments that shock, spook, delight, and change a story entirely. A disgraced ex-cop approaches a...

Disabled young people will be proud to see themselves reflected in this hopeful, compelling, and insightful essay collection, adapted for young adults from the critically acclaimed adult book, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century that "sheds light on...

Winner of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award In Mother River, Can Xue, one of China's most daring and visionary writers, invites us into a surreal landscape where reality is...