This extraordinary collection gathers short-short stories-none longer than 1, 800 words-by some of North Carolina's best contemporary writers, including Doris Betts, Orson Scott Card, Fred Chappell, Sarah Dessen, Haven Kimmel, Robert Morgan, Lee Smith, Elizabeth Spencer, and Daniel Wallace. The stories are compulsively readable. The spellbinding elements of brevity, variety, and surprise conspire to keep readers flipping pages. Comic, tragic, magical, fantastical, provocative, disturbing, luminous, the short-short form proves a reliably elastic and dazzling medium for every writer featured. In one flash of literary artistry after another, these sixty-five established and emerging writers remind us why we read fiction: to laugh, to learn, to feel, to be discomfited and challenged, to be transported, and to make enlightening and enduring connections with the world outside our own skins. Long Story Short will appeal to legions of fans who already delight in reading many of the North Carolina authors included here and will introduce them to extraordinary writers they have not yet discovered. Contributors:Max SteeleAnthony S. AbbottDaphne AthasRussell BanksWilton BarnhardtDoris BettsWill BlytheWendy BrennerAmy Knox BrownBekah BrunstetterOrson Scott CardFred ChappellKelly CherryElizabeth CoxQuinn DaltonAngela Davis-GardnerSarah DessenPamela DuncanPam DurbanClyde EdgertonTracie FellersBen FountainPhilip GerardMarianne GingherGail GodwinJim GrimsleyVirginia HolmanRandall KenanJohn KesselHaven KimmelCarrie KnowlesTelisha Moore LeiggPeter MakuckMichael MaloneDoug MarletteMargaret MaronJill McCorklePhilip McFeeJohn McNallyHeather Ross MillerLydia MilletKatherine MinCourtney Jones MitchellRuth MooseRobert MorganShelia MosesLawrence NaumoffJenny OffillElizabeth OliverMichael ParkerPeggy PayneJoe Ashby PorterDenise RickmanDavid RowellJohn RowellDeborah SeabrookeDave ShawBland SimpsonLee SmithJune SpenceElizabeth SpencerMelanie SumnerDaniel WallaceLuke WhisnantLynn York | Long Story Short by Marianne Gingher, Paperback | Indigo Chapters