American short Story Writers

Short story writers write short pieces of prose fiction that generally focus on a single theme, simple plots and few characters. There is considerable debate surrounding what should be the appropriate word limit for a piece of fiction to be considered a short story; it is generally considered to be between 1000 to about 20, 000 words. Edgar Allan Poe, the famous American author regarded to be one of the earliest writers of short stories defined a short story as a short piece of fiction that can be read in one sitting. However this categorization is also subjective, there is no concrete definition of what constitutes the time limit for one sitting. Many novelists begin their career as writers of short stories. Writing shorter pieces of prose before commencing a lengthier piece of work gives them an opportunity to hone their writing skills and get an idea about the readership for their works. It also helps popularize the writer’s name in the market so that any other work by the same author is received favorably. Short stories are mostly based on a single theme that revolves around a small cast of characters, and are usually less complex than novels. Listed below is a collection of the biographies about the lives and works of famous short story writers from around the world.