1. American short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually
written in prose, often in narrative format. This
format tends to be more pointed than longer works
of fiction, such as novellas (in the 20th and 21st
century sense) and novels or books.
Short story definitions based upon length differ
somewhat even among professional writers, due
somewhat in part to the fragmentation of the
medium into genres

2. Since the short story format includes a wide range of genres
and styles, the actual length is mitigated somewhere between
the individual author's preference (or the story's actual needs in
terms of creative trajectory or story arc) and the submission
guidelines relevant to the story's actual market. Guidelines
vary greatly among publishers.
Many short story writers define their work through a
combination of creative, personal expression and artistic
integrity. As a result, many attempt to resist categorization by
genre as well as definition by numbers, finding such
approaches limiting and counter-intuitive to artistic form and
reasoning. As a result, definitions of the short story based upon
length splinter even more when the writing process is taken
into consideration.

3. Isaac Asimov
Asimov is certainly one of the most prolific
writers in the English language. He is
known for many different works from his
series “Foundation”, and “Fantastic
Voyage”, to text books and everything inbetween. He is primarily known as a
science fiction writer, however he is one of
the few people to have their writing span
every major category of the Dewy Decimal
System except Philosophy. He wrote an
estimated 515 books in his lifetime. As far
as writing short stories goes, he has 3 well
known stories. “I, Robot”, “The
Bicentennial Man”, and “The Last
Question.” The first two have been turned
into movies. He wrote 19 Short Story
collections, spanning a total of 284.

4. Ray Bradbury
Bradbury is a very well known
Science Fiction writer. He is famous
for writing a short story every day, a
ritual that many other writers have
attempted to follow. He has written
11 novels, 3 of which are made up
of loosely connected stories, and
over 40 short story collections, for a
grand total of over 400 short stories
and novellas. But it’s not just
quantity that earns him a place on
this list. His best known short story
“A Sound of Thunder”, is the origin
of a common science fiction theme
called “the butterfly effect”, it is
also the most republished science
fiction story of all time.

5. Stephen King
King is one of the most popular
authors in America, and a very
prolific writer as well. He is a huge
fan of the short story. “1408″, “The
Mist”, and “Hearts in Atlantis” are
just a few of the 35 short stories he
wrote that have been made into
movies, though perhaps the most
famous is “Stand By Me”. He has
written 8 story collections and a
total of 124 short stories and 17
Novellas in his career. He was also
selected to be the editor of The Best
American Short Stories of 2007,
and also won the O. Henry Award
in 1996.

6. J.D. Salinger
Salinger is known for his novel
“Catcher in the Rye”, this is actually
his only published novel. A very
eccentric writer, he has written a great
deal of material in his life, but much of
it has never been seen by any one but
him. He has 3 other books available to
the public. “Nine Stories”, “Frannie
and Zoey”, and “Raise High the Roof
Beams, Carpenters and Seymour an
Introduction”. All 3 of these books are
short story collections. He also has
about 2 dozen other uncollected short
stories. Salinger is considered by many
to be the greatest American writer of
the 20th century.

7. O. Henry
Real name William Sydney Porter.
O. Henry is known for writing flash
fiction with wit and a strange twist
ending. His most well known story
is “The Gift of the Magi” which is a
story about a young poor couple
who each sells their most precious
object in order to buy a Christmas
gift for their partner, but in doing
so they end up making each others
gift worthless. This story has been
retold in many different forms over
the years. The O. Henry Award was
established in his honor, it is a very
prestigious award given to
outstanding short story writers.

8. Edgar Allen Poe
Poe is probably the most
famous English short story
writer of all time. Poe only
wrote one complete novel in
his lifetime, and it is not very
well known, however his short
stories are. Most people can
tell you the story of “The Tell
Tale Heart”, “The Masque of
the Red Death,” or “The Pit
and the Pendulum”. Poe has
over 65 short stories to his
name. Poe is also considered
to have invented the detective
genre.

9. F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was an
American writer of novels and
short stories, whose works are
evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he
coined himself. He is widely
regarded as one of the twentieth
century’s
greatest
writers.
Fitzgerald is considered a member
of the “Lost Generation” of the
Twenties. He finished four novels,
including The Great Gatsby, with
another published posthumously,
and wrote dozens of short stories
that treat themes of youth and
promise along with despair and age.
If you want a recommendation for
his greatest two short stories, I
suggest reading “Bernice Bobs Her
Hair” and “The Diamond As Big
As The Ritz”. You won’t be
disappointed.

10. John Updike
Updike was an extremely
gifted short story writer, he
published over 150 short
stories in his career, his last
collection “Tears of my
Father” was published in
June 2009, about 6 months
after his death. He has also
won over 30 different
awards in his lifetime
including: the Pulitzer, the
Rea
Award,
the
PEN/Falkner award, and
the aforementioned O.
Henry Award to name a
few.