Where should I go to buy/read finished short stories? Also, from how little and up to how many words is a short story limited? Are there authors that specialize in short stories? Thx!
There are indeed authors who specialize in short stories. If you want to buy some short stories, there are a lot on Amazon. A current one that comes to mind is Tenth of December. There's also Junot Diaz' This is How You Lose Her, which is a series of interconnected short stories. There are anthologies every year published, one called The Best American Short Stories. If you want to find free ones online, you could search for The New Yorker -- they often have their stories available online. Other publications, that publish only short stories are also out there -- Glimmer Train comes to mind. The short story publications vary on how much prestige they have, or what sort of stories they publish, so you need to look for ones that are more selective. There's no "official" length for a short story, and different publications have different parameters as far as word limits. Very short stories, sometimes called micro fiction, or flash fiction might have only 50 or 100 words. Most short stories run between 1,500 and 12,000 words.
If you're a horror fan, Stephen King has written quite a few compilations of short stories: Skeleton Crew; Night Shift; Full Dark, No Stars; etc.
You can fine short stories for the Kindle on Amazon, both from indie writers and established, traditional authors.
Robinson, Niven, and Wolfe are science-fiction writers. If you're looking for mainstream "literary" fiction, seek out collections of short stories by Flannery O'Connor, Ernest Hemingway, T.C. Boyle, Jhumpa Lahiri, John Cheever, Alice Munro, W. Somerset Maugham, Deborah Eisenberg, George Saunders, and many others. Also, check out literary magazines, such as The Paris Review, Tin House, Ploughshares, and a great many others. Wiki "List of Literary Magazines" for more.
I really like Roald Dahl's short stories (Kiss Kiss is good) and Joe R Lansdale (if you aren't easily offended), the latter puts a different short story on his website for free every couple of weeks.
google for '100 best short stories'... you'll find that many on the list have links to where they can be read online... here's one of the best: http://www.americanliterature.com/100-great-short-stories
Chekhov mostly wrote short stories and is widely regarded as one of the masters of the form. Another writer to look up is Guy de Maupassant. Alice Munro, who's a contemporary writer, only writes short stories and is, in my opinion, the best short story writer alive.
I love Bukowski's short stories, but some people find them to be too raunchy and maybe offensive. I am looking forward to reading Vonnegut's 'Welcome to the Monkey House' which is his short story collection. Some of the intro to fiction writing textbooks are great since they not only have iconic short stories, but also discuss the relevancy of the works to the overall art form.
