SHORT STORY WRITERS YOU LOVE

Alice Munro, the recipient of more twitter love than any other short story writer

Last weekend I was researching a piece on the resurgence of the short story for a sunday supplement. Turning to one of my more frequently used research tools, I asked twitter for some recommendations; to name a short story writer, or two, they loved. Usually, when I do this, one of two things happens:

1. Everyone ignores you and carries on watching Britain's Got Talent.

2. You get a handful of suggestions, most of which you already knew, plus a couple of piss-takes.

Very occasionally, a third thing happens: you drown.

Last Sunday, I drowned. And several days later I was still drowning. There were so many suggestions  that I couldn't possibly use them in the feature, so I decided to post the whole lot (so far) here. I'm listing them in alphabetical order so no-one can accuse me of any sort of favouritism (other than for people whose surnames begin with A).

Please remember, this is twitter's list, not mine, so please reserve your abuse for twitter. Any additions gratefully received (as long as they're not your mum/dad/sister/aunt), but I'm not taking anyone off, just because you don't like them...

My favourite short story collection by one of my favourite writers

A Uwem Akpan, Sherman Alexei, Nina Allam, Kate Atkins, Margaret Atwood

B Isaac Babel, HE Bates, Kevin Barry, Donald Barthelme, Aimee Bender, Hassan Blasim, Amy Bloom, Roberto Bolano, Jorge Louis Borges, Ray Boudinot, Malcolm Bradbury, Ray Bradbury, Richard Brautigan, Maeve Brennan, Harold Brodkey, George Mackay Brown, Charles Bukowski

C Italo Calvino, Peter Carey, Angela Carter, Raymond Chandler, John Cheever, Ted Chiang, Anton Chekhov, Colette, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Costello

D Roald Dahl, Lydia Davis, Don Delillo, Anita Desai, Junot Diaz, Anthony Doerr, Andre Dubus, Stella Duffy

E Harlan Ellison, Anne Enright, Stuart Evers

F F Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Ford

G Neil Gaiman, Janice Galloway, Anna Gavalda, Ellen Gilchrist, Nikolai Gogol, The Brothers Grimm

H Mark Haddon, Sarah Hall, Joanne Harris, M John Harrison, Adam Haslett, Ernest Hemingway, Amy Hempel, Tania Hershman, Susan Hill, AM Homes

J Shirley Jackson, MR James, Tove Jansson, Denis Johnson, James Joyce, Miranda July

K Franz Kafka, AL Kennedy, Etger Keret, Stephen King, Hanif Kureishi

L Jhumpa Lahiri, CS Lakshmi, Margo Lanagan, Mary Lavin, Doris Lessing, Deborah Levy, Kelly Link

M Bernard Maclaverty, Alison Macleod, David Malouf, Kuzhali Manickavel, Thomas Mann, Katherine Mansfield, Adam Marek, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Claire Massey, Somerset Maugham, Guy de Maupassant, Daphne Du Maurier, William Maxwell, Elizabeth McCracken, Carson McCullers, Ian McEwan, John McGahern, Jon McGregor, Herman Melville, Stephen Millhauser, Lorrie Moore, Kate Mosse, Alice Munro

N Jeff Noon, Alissa Nutting

O Edna O'Brien, Flann O'Brien, Flannery O'Connor, Frank O'Connor, Yoko Ogawa, Helen Oyeyemi

Dorothy Parker: the queen of the smart one-liner

P Grace Paley, Mollie Panter-Downes, Rajesh Parameswaran, Dorothy Parker, Edith Pearlman

Jayne Anne Phillips, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, VS Pritchett

R Ian Rankin, Dan Rhodes, Jean Rhys, Philip Roth, Karen Russell

S Saki, JD Salinger, James Salter, Sarah Salway, Sofia Samatar, Polly Samson, George Saunders, Bruno Schulz, Will Self, Robert Shearman, Jim Shepard, Carol Shields, Lionel Shriver, Helen Simpson, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Ali Smith

T Amy Tan, Elizabeth Taylor, AC Tilyer, William Trevor, Ivan Turgenev

V Simona Vinci

W David Foster Wallace, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Jeanette Winterson, PG Wodehouse, Tobias Wolff, Lucy Wood

Y Richard Yates

Who's missing? Go on, you know you want to tell me...