And Then Some

By Emily Temple

October 8, 2019

Friends, it’s true: the end of the decade approaches. It’s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally
compromised decade, but at least it’s been populated by some damn fine literature. We’ll take our
silver linings where we can.

So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website—though with full awareness of the
potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task—in the coming weeks, we’ll be
taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade
that was. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. We began with the best debut
novels of the decade, and now we’re back with the best short story collections of the decade—or to
be precise, the best collections published in English between 2010 and 2019.

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary
Hub staff. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. And as you’ll shortly see, we
had a hard time choosing just ten—so we’ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even
longer list of also-rans. Feel free to add any favorites we’ve missed in the comments below.