Short Stories for WSF 2022

brambilla, alps

© Franco Brambilla, “Let’s Go Back to the Alps” (2010)

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We will be reading a few short stories per class. Some stories are only a few pages long, and no story is longer than 30pp. (most are between 10-15pp). 

You are also welcome to read additional stories from around the world.  Many anthologies are in the library or my office.  Some stories can also be found online: check out Translated SF, these magazines, and these blogs.  If you find a story or an anthology that CBB doesn’t have, you can order it through Interlibrary Loan.  Sometimes, you can find an inexpensive, used copy of an anthology on Amazon, Alibris, Ebay, etc.  See also UNZ.org for old SF magazines (some issues are fully readable, other just have the tables of contents)

Anthology to purchase
Evans, A. et al., ed. The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction. Middletown: Wesleyan
University Press, 2010.

Novella to purchase
Cipri, Nino. NY: Defekt. Tordotcom, 2021.

Assigned stories (all US or UK authors) from The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction
H. G. Wells, “The Star” (1897)
Isaac Asimov, “Reason” (1941)
Clifford D. Simak, “Desertion” (1944)
Judith Merril, “That Only a Mother” (1948)
Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950)
Arthur C. Clarke, “The Sentinel” (1951)
Avram Davidson, “The Golem” (1955)
Harlan Ellison, “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Tictockman” (1965)
J. G. Ballard, “You & Me & the Continuum” (1966)
P. K. Dick, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (1966)
Samuel R. Delany, “Aye, and Gomorrah…” (1967)
Ursula Le Guin, “Nine Lives” (1969)
Brian Aldiss, “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” (1969)
Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” (1972)
William Gibson, “Burning Chrome” (1982)
Octavia Butler, “Speech Sounds” (1983)
Pat Cadigan, “Pretty Boy Crossover” (1986)
Eileen Gunn, “Computer Friendly” (1989)
James Patrick Kelly, “Think Like a Dinosaur” (1995)
Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (2008)

Assigned stories not in Wesleyan are on BB (Readings)
W.E.B. DuBois, “The Comet” (USA, 1920)
Juan José Arreola, “Baby H.P.” (Mexico, 1952)
Margaret St. Clair, “Prott” (US, 1953)
Andrew North (Alice Mary Norton), “All Cats are Gray” (US, 1953)
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, “The Strangers” (Russia, 1959)
Herbert Franke, “Thought Control” (Austria, 1961)
Lino Aldani, “Good Night, Sophie” (Italy, 1963)
Shinichi Hoshi, “Bokko-chan” (Japan, 1963)
Luigi Cozzi, “Rainy Day Revolution No. 39” (Italy, 1965)
Ilya Varshavsky, “Perpetual Motion” (Russia, 1965)
Primo Levi, “Man’s Friend” (Italy, 1966)
Sakyō Komatsu, “Take Your Choice” (Japan, 1967)
Tor Age Bringsvaerd, “Codemus” (Norway, 1968)
Stanislaw Lem, “Tale of the Computer that Fought a Dragon” (Poland, 1971)
José B. Adolph, “The Falsifier” (Peru, 1972)
James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “And I Awoke and Found Me Here…” (USA, 1972)
Yasutaka Tsutsui, “Standing Woman” (Japan, 1974)
Alicia Yánez Cossí, “The IWM 1000” (Chile, 1975)
Hanmura Ryō, Cardboard Box” (Japan, 1975)
Sergei Drugal, “The Exam” (Russia, 1979)
Federico Schaffler, “A Miscalculation” (Mexico, 1983)
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild” (US, 1984)
Zheng Wenguang, “The Mirror Image of the Earth” (China, 1980)
Braulio Tavares, “Stuntmind” (Brazil, 1989)
Angélica Gorodischer, “The Unmistakeable Smell of Wood Violets” (Argentina, 1991)
Massimo Mongai, “Galactic Guidebook for the Gourmet” (Italy, 1999)
Pablo A. Castro, “Exerion” (Chile, 2000)
Vandana Singh, “Delhi” (India, 2004)
Alastair Reynolds, “Zima Blue” (USA, 2005)
Park Seonghwan, “Readmade Bodhisattva” (Korea, 2005)
Nnedi Okorafor, “From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7” (Nigeria, 2009)
Fadzlishah Johanabas, “Act of Faith” (Malaysia, 2010)
Chen Qiufan, “A History of Future Illnesses” (China, 2012)
Jake Kerr, “The Alien Invasion As Seen in the Twitter Stream of @dweebless” (USA, 2012)
Carmen Maria Machado, “The Hungry Earth” (US, 2013)
Hao Jingfang, “Folding Beijing” (China, 2014)
Lavie Tidhar, “The Smell of Orange Groves”  (Israel, 2014)
Annalee Newitz, “Two Scenarios for the …” (US, 2014)
Charlie Jane Anders, “The Day It All Ended” (US, 2014)
Catherynne Valente, “The Future is Blue (USA, 2016)
Zhraa Alhaboby, “Baghdad Syndrome” (Iraq, 2016)
Hao Jingfang, “New Year Train” (China, 2017)
Vina Jie-Min Prasad, “A Series of Steaks” (Singapore, 2017)
Ng Yi-Seng, “Xingzhou” (Singapore, 2019)
Darie Little Badger, “Robo-Liopleurodon (First Nation, 2019)
Tlotlo Tsamaase, “Virtual Snapshot” (Botswana, 2019)

Past assigned stories on BB (Readings) – not required
Anatoly Dnieprov, “The World in Which I Vanished” (Russia, 1961)
Julian Kawalec, “I Kill Myself” (Poland, 1962)
Stanisław Lem, “How Erg the Self-Inducting Slew a Paleface” (Poland, 1964)
Pablo Capanna, “Acronia” (Argentina, 1966)
Strugatsky Brothers, “Wanders and Travelers” (Russia, 1966)
Gérard Klein, “Party Line” (France, 1969)
Vladlen Bakhnov, “Cheap Sale” (Russia, 1970)
Gheorghe Săsărman, “Senezia” (Romania, 1975)
Gabriel Bermudez Castillo, “Opportunities Galore” (Spain, 1978)
David Grigg, “A Compassionate People” (Australia, 1978)
Sam Lundwall, “Take Me Down the River” (Sweden, 1979)
Ernst Vlcek, “Say It With Flowers” (Austria, 1980)
Bob Shaw, “In the Hereafter Hilton” (Ireland, 1980)
Tong Enzheng, “The Death of the World’s First Robot” (China, 1982)
Josef Nesvadba, “The Divided Carla” (The Czech Republic, 1985)
Yves Meynard, “Equinox” (Canada, 1992)
Guillermo Lavín, “Reaching the Shore” (Mexico, 1994)
Valerio Evangelisti, “Sepultura” (Italy, 1996)
Rosaleen Love, “Two Recipes for Magic Beans” (Australia, 1998)
Ion Hobana, “Night Broadcast” (Romania, 1986)
Hannu Rajaniemi, “Shibuya No Love” (Finland, 2004)
W. J. Maryson, “Verstummte Musik” (The Netherlands, 2005)
João Barreiros, “A Night on the Edge of the Empire” (Portugal, 2007)
Panagiotis Koustas, “Athos Emfovos in the Temple of Sound” (Greece, 2007)
Kristin Mandigma, “Excerpt From a Letter By a Social-Realist Aswang” (Phillippines, 2007)
Anabel Eriquez Pineiro, “Borrowed Time” (Cuba, 2007)
Yaniv Nir, “Cinderers” (Israel, 2009)
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, “Alternate Girls’ Expatriate Life” (Philippines/Netherlands, 2010)
Fábio Fernandes, “Nothing Happened in 1999” (Brazil, 2010)
Issui Ogawa, “Golden Bread” (Japan, 2012)
Sergey Lukyanenko, “If You Act Now” (Russia, 2012)
Nick Wood, “Azania” (Zambia, 2012)
Minsoo Kang, “Jing Ke Before the Principle of Order” (Korea, 2012)
Ken Liu, “Mono no Aware” (USA, 2012)
Grace Bridges, “Max’s Black Box” (New Zealand, 2013)
Karin Tidbeck, “Sing” (Sweden, 2013)
Hannu Rajaniemi, “The Server and the Dragon” (Finland, 2014)
Ezra Clayton Daniels, “A Vessel in Drift” (USA, 2016)
Magera Gordon, “Peopleology” (USA, 2016)
Evangelos Androutsopoulos, “Recordings” (Greece/Finland, 2016)



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