Tag Archives: Short Stories

An OG Luigi

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“Conscience” by Italo Calvino translated by Tim Parks Came a war and a guy called Luigi asked if he could go, as a volunteer. Everyone was full of praise. Luigi went to the place where they were handing out the … Continue reading →

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Forget Dystopia

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Thinking about all of the dystopian speculative fiction that I’ve been binging on in recent years, I am reminded of the great Ray Bradbury’s imagining of a more positive future for humanity. The 1984 short story The Toynbee Convector tells the … Continue reading →

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“Amargura Para Tres Sonámbulos”

Posted on September 28, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“Bitterness for Three Sleepwalkers” is a 1949 short story by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. Published when he was just twenty-two years old, it is one of his earliest stories. “Bitterness for Three Sleepwalkers” by Gabriel García Márquez translated … Continue reading →

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Heaven’s Gate

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“A Society of Scoundrels” by Franz Kafka Translated by Michael Hofmann There was once a society of scoundrels, or rather not scoundrels per se, just ordinary, average people. They always stuck together. When one of them had perpetrated some rascally … Continue reading →

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The Mark on the Wall

Posted on August 17, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

  “The Mark On The Wall” is based on Virginia Woolf’s short story of the same name, which opens with the mysterious line—”Perhaps it was the middle of January in the present year that I first looked up and saw the mark … Continue reading →

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the danger that carries us like a mother

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Alaska When I think about Alaska what comes to mind are glaciers, mountains, fjords, forests and snow, deserts not so much. But the other day I stumbled upon a story about the discovery of 10,000 year-old obsidian tools in an … Continue reading →

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The Lottery

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In 1960, five years before her death, Shirley Jackson recorded readings of “The Lottery” and “The Daemon Lover” for an outfit called Folkways Records—the only time we know of that she ever recorded performances of her own work.” Set on … Continue reading →

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For some reason, the word ‘Sunday’ makes his head ache

Posted on July 30, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Vampire by Robert Coover He sets off one day on an arduous journey to a remote kingdom, wondering, as the weeks pass, about the wisdom of it. Even the purpose. When he launched forth, he was sure he had a … Continue reading →

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Happy Hemingway Day

Posted on July 21, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

“Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on … Continue reading →

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Writer’s Life

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

 

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