December 21st is Celebrate Short Fiction Day

Each December, we mark the first day of winter (also known as the winter solstice)—a day when we have the least amount of daylight.

Depressing? Not at all—not when you can use that long winter night to “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day by reading a short story!

As author Caroline Adderson said in The Globe and Mail article, “Winter is long, the nights, too. So let’s gather by the hearth. The space is small, but no matter; there aren’t that many of us. Let’s read each other stories.”

Short stories have been around as long as man was able to spin a tale about people, places and things. Oral yarns shared around firesides, written sagas transcribed on parchment and paper—whatever form the stories took and however they were handed down from one generation to the next, short stories have a venerable and honored place in literature.

And now, with the advent of e-readers, they are enjoying a resurgence. Generations more accustomed to tapping than turning can lose themselves for a finite space of time in a fictional world and then emerge—refreshed, renewed, challenged or consoled.

So choose your favorite among the hundreds out there, in lengths from micro fiction to novellas, and spend your winter solstice night by reading a short story or two!

Happy reading!