WAmerican Gothic Tales is an anthology of "gothic" American short fiction. Edited and with an Introduction by Joyce Carol Oates, it was published by Plume in 1996. It featured contributions by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Anne Rice and others, and included over 40 stories.
WAtomic Chili: The Illustrated Joe R. Lansdale by Lansdale et al., is a collection of previously written stories by Joe R. Lansdale, adapted into comic book form by assorted artists and writers. The book was designed by John Picacio, and featured a cover by Dave Dorman.
WBefore…12:01…and After is a collection of science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror stories by author Richard A. Lupoff. It was released in 1996 by Fedogan & Bremer in an edition of 2,100 copies of which 100 were signed by the author and the artist. Many of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Pagoda, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Heavy Metal, Fantastic, Whispers, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Detective Story Magazine, Hardboiled and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
WThe Best American Short Stories 1996, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor John Edgar Wideman.
WBook of Enchantments is a collection of short stories written by American fantasy author Patricia C. Wrede. It was first published in hardcover by Harcourt Brace in 1996, and was subsequently issued in paperback by Point Fantasy in 1998 and in trade paperback by Magic Carpet Books in 2005. Five of the stories had appeared previously in the anthologies Liavek: The Players of Luck, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, The Unicorn Treasury, edited by Bruce Coville, Tales of the Witch World 3, edited by Andre Norton, A Wizard’s Dozen, edited by Michael Stearns, and Black Thorn, White Rose, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.
WCity In Love (1996) is a collection of short stories by the American novelist Alex Shakar. The stories are set in a mythical version of New York City. The year is said to be 1 B.C., but the atmosphere is more or less contemporary. The stories are based on the Metamorphoses myths of Ovid. As in the Metamorphoses, some of the transformations of City In Love are physical and fantastical, while others are psychological or metaphorical. The stories range in form from traditional to experimental, though all are character- and narrative-based. Originally released by FC2 as winner of the National Fiction Competition in 1996, it was rereleased by Harper Collins in 2002.
WCivilWarLand in Bad Decline is a book of short stories and a novella by the American writer George Saunders. Published in 1996, it was Saunders's first book. Many of the stories initially appeared in different forms in various magazines, including Kenyon Review, Harper's, The New Yorker and Quarterly West. The collection was listed as a Notable Book of 1996 by The New York Times, as well as a finalist for the 1996 PEN/Hemingway Award.
WCobra Trap is the title of a short story collection by Peter O'Donnell featuring his action/adventure heroine Modesty Blaise. The book was published in 1996, and is the thirteenth, and final book in the Modesty Blaise series which began in 1965. Cobra Trap was released 11 years after the previous book in the series, Dead Man's Handle. It was the final book to be written by O'Donnell before his death in 2010.
WCross Channel is a collection of short stories by Julian Barnes, first published in 1996 by Jonathan Cape. As the title suggests, all stories focus on the connection between England and France.
WDancing After Hours is a book of short stories by Andre Dubus. First published in 1996 by Vintage, it was one of that year's New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
WDemon and Other Tales is a compilation of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates.
WDinosaurs is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Martin H. Greenberg. It was first published in hardcover by Donald I. Fine in February 1996, with a second edition issued by Niagara/Ulverscroft in October of the same year.
WDrown is the semi-autobiographical, debut short story collection from Dominican-American author Junot Díaz that address the trials of Dominican immigrants as they attempt to find some semblance of the American Dream after immigrating to America. The stories are set in the context of 1980s America, and are narrated by an adult who is looking back at his childhood. Drown was published by Riverhead Books in 1996.
WFearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids is a 1996 children's fantasy horror book written by British author Jamie Rix. It is the third book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series. It was published by Hodder Children's Books and was the last in the series to be published before the cartoon adaptation, containing 16 short stories, one story more than the previous two books.
WHackers is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It was first published in 1996. It contains stories by science fiction and cyberpunk writers of the late 1980s and early 1990s about hackers.
WHorrid Henry Tricks The Tooth Fairy is the third book of the Horrid Henry series. It was published in 1996 as Horrid Henry and the Tooth Fairy and was written by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross.
WHva skal vi gjøre i dag og andre noveller is a 1996 short story collection by Norwegian author Øystein Lønn. It won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1996.
WThe Labrador Fiasco (ISBN 0-7475-2889-6) is a book by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was published in 1996, and incorporates two of Atwood's longstanding interests of Canadian history and the Canadian wilderness. Labrador refers to the Canadian place rather than the breed of dog, the Canadian Forces helicopter, the Singapore Nature Reserve, the ocean current, the Canadian Coast Guard ship, the Costa Rican district, the Filipino town, or the American politician.
WThe Last Pin is a series of mystery stories by author Howard Wandrei. It was released in 1996 by F & B Mystery in an edition of 1,600 copies of which 100 were specially bound and released in a slipcase with Wandrei's Saith the Lord. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Detective Fiction Weekly, Private Detective Stories, Detective Action Stories, Spicy Detective Stories, Romantic Detective, and Black Mask under Wandrei's pseudonyms, Robert A. Garron and H. W. Guernsey.
WMad Amos is a 1996 short story collection by the American speculative fiction author Alan Dean Foster. The stories center on the character of Amos Malone, a mountain man in the 19th century American West. Mad Amos' knowledge of the occult and the fantastic brings him and his trusty but temperamental steed, the unicorn Worthless, into various adventures.
WMagic (1996) is a collection of short stories and essays by Isaac Asimov, all within the fantasy genre, collected and released after his death. The first seven stories are part of his Azazel series, while the remainder are three more traditional medieval fantasies and one mystery story from Asimov's Black Widowers series.
WThe Man-Kzin Wars is a series of military science fiction short story collections, as well as the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti that they detail. They are set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe; however, Niven himself has only written a small number of the stories.
WNebula Awards 30 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Pamela Sargent, the second of three successive volumes under her editorship. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace in April 1996.
WOcean of Words is a short story collection by Ha Jin. It is his first published book. The stories are set along the China-Soviet border in the 1970s after the nations split political ties.
WPolaroids from the Dead is a collection of short stories and essays by Douglas Coupland. The theme is that each story is written from a collection of old Polaroid photographs that Coupland found in a drawer. It is an attempt to describe the 1990s, a decade that "seemed to be living in a 1980s hangover". Topics of the stories include a Grateful Dead concert, a post-mortem letter to Kurt Cobain, Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge, and an homage to James Rosenquist's painting F-111. The book's ends with a longer essay on Brentwood, California, home to Marilyn Monroe's grave, and the O. J. Simpson murder case. The essay is in part a collage of menus, scraps of conversation, and postings from bulletin boards.
WQuicker Than the Eye is a collection of short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury, published nearly a decade after his last collection.
WSelected Stories is a volume of short stories by Alice Munro, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1996. It collects stories from her eight previously published books.
WSpace Opera is a 1996 anthology of science fiction short stories and novelettes edited by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough.
WStandard Candles is a compilation of science fiction short stories by American author Jack McDevitt, published in 1996. The sixteen stories in the anthology were originally published in various magazines from 1982 to 1996. The introduction is provided by Charles Sheffield.
WSynthesis & Other Virtual Realities is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Mary Rosenblum. It was released in 1996 and was the author's first collection of stories. It was published by Arkham House in an edition of 3,515 copies. The stories originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
WTales from Watership Down is a collection of 19 short stories by Richard Adams, published in 1996 as a follow-up to Adams's highly successful 1972 novel about rabbits, Watership Down. It consists of a number of short stories of rabbit mythology, followed by several chapters featuring many of the characters introduced in the earlier book. Like its predecessor, Tales from Watership Down features epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter and a Lapine glossary.
WThe Almost Complete Collection of True Singapore Ghost Stories is the bestselling book series in Singapore. With over 1.5 million copies sold, the series has become a household name since its inception in 1989. Russell Lee, a Singaporean author, compiles reports, stories and interviews about the supernatural. Light and entertaining, each book, which comprises about 30 stories, appeals to both children and mature readers.
WTrue Stories is a collection of short non-fiction works by Australian writer Helen Garner first published in 1996 by Text Publishing. The short works in the collection start with Garner's immediate notes as a school teacher to her journalist accounts of visiting a morgue and a maternity ward in a hospital.
WTrying to Save Piggy Sneed is a collection of short works by John Irving, first published by Arcade Publishing in 1996. It features twelve writing pieces divided into three sections: Memoirs, Fiction, and Homage.
WUnlocking the Air and Other Stories is a 1996 collection of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. Like Searoad and Orsinian Tales, most of the included stories are neither science fiction nor fantasy. It was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
WVoyages by Starlight is a collection of science fiction and horror stories by British writer Ian R. MacLeod. It was released in 1996 and was the author's first book. It was published by Arkham House in an edition of 2,542 copies. The stories originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Weird Tales.
WThe Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye is a 1996 collection of seven short stories by Jonathan Lethem. In 2002 a collection of the same name appeared in the United Kingdom that also contained seven stories, but two stories from the earlier collection—"Vanilla Dunk" and "Forever, Said the Duck"—were replaced by "Access Fantasy" and "How We Got Into Town And Out Again". All of the stories, as with much of Lethem's early work, have definite science fiction elements despite their widely varying content and some thinly veiled commentary on modern society.
WWhen I Was Mortal is a short story collection by the Spanish writer Javier Marías. It was translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa and published in the United States in 2002 by New Directions.
WWomen in Their Beds is a short story collection by Gina Berriault. It received the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
WThe Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection is a 1996 science fiction anthology edited by Gardner Dozois. It is the 13th in the Year's Best Science Fiction series. It won the Locus Award for best anthology.
WYear's Best SF is a science fiction anthology edited by David G. Hartwell that was published in 1996. It is the first in the Year's Best SF series, which has been published every year since this first volume was released.