Reading Short Stories

I've read horror, science fiction and fantasy short stories. I haven't been thrilled with them and would like to try something new. I did like the Legends series of fantasy short stories. My thought is that I'd like something more intense and riveting. A story that I go, "Wow" and have to take a deep breath afterwards. I don't have any preference on genre though I do prefer to not have to slog through "dense" writing.

Any suggestions?

It really depends on what kind of genre you're looking for. When you mentioned that you'd like to read something that inspires that "Wow" response, the first book that came to mind was Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters
by Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution, Women of the York Correctional Institution.

It's a collection of stories written by inmates during an English Creative Writing program that was started at the facility. I was skeptical at first, but it was definately worth the read. Very powerful insights!

I know you mentioned you wanted something new, but have you tried Tim Lebbon's horror short stories?

Civilwarland in bad decline by George Saunders was really good, too ... kind of borderline scifi.

Something that sounds like it would be very different for you, but excellent, is Mary Gaitskill's first collection, Bad Behavior.

Honestly, the only horror short stories I've read are King and Lovecraft. I could only get through about 1/2 a book of Lovecraft. It's not that I didn't like the stories or writing, but they were giving me nightmares! I'll give Lebbon and your other suggestions a try. Thanks!

Well, I don't think Lebbon will help with your nightmares ...

Try Tina L. Jens' Blues Ain't Nothin'. These are stories of a haunted blues bar in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. It was a 2003 Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best First Novel. While it's all good, a couple of them in particular have that "Wow", take-your-breath-away factor. "Tracks of a Hellhound" riffs on the old story that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for being a great bluesman, and "Stranger Ev'rywhere" gets right into the head of Harpsicrazy, a paranoid schizophrenic barfly (this story won a IWPA Mate E. Palmer Award).

May I recommend the work of a relatively unknown author who I think deserves wider recognition? His name is G. W. Hawkes. He taught and advised my daughter in college. He has two collections of short stories Playing Out of the Deep Woods and Spies in the Blue Smoke. I would not categorize these as science fiction, but there is frequently a whiff of the supernatural in them. I think they are wonderfully written. He has also written several novels, of which I strongly recommend Semaphore.