SSDG – Short Story Discussion Group

NEXT MEETING

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Jan 22, 2026 · 12:00pm PT · Google Meet │ │ ─────────────────────────────────────────── │ │ Picker: Hannah │ │ Stories: │ │ "A Poor-Aunt Story" – Haruki Murakami │ │ "Can Only Houses Be Haunted" – Bertino │ │ │ │ Rotation: JC → Hannah → Ruben → John │ │ ▲ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

RECENT

Dec 17, 2025 · All Play (Time)

"Plants, Stones, Dirt & Sky" – JC

"Wing's Chips" – Mavis Gallant (Hannah)

"Repent, Harlequin!" – Harlan Ellison (Ruben)

Afterlife story – John

Nov 21, 2025 · JC's pick

"The Unreasonable" – Rivka Galchen

Bee story – Rivka Galchen

Oct 22, 2025 · John's pick

"Signs and Symbols" – Vladimir Nabokov

"Origin Story" + "The Lesson" – Kelly Link

→ Full archive (91 stories)

STATS

91

stories

36

meetings

3

years

2.3%

skinnings*

* Human skinning incidents. Hard limit: <1%.

ABOUT

Four friends meeting monthly since 2022 to discuss short stories. One person picks two stories, everyone reads, we talk for 90 minutes on Google Meet.

"Two stories, two different authors, hopefully two different time periods. I feel like we're reading good stuff and have good conversations. That's all I wanted out of the group."

CATNIPS

Older narrator coming to terms with childhood · Ambiguous endings · Devastating final paragraphs · Stories that reward re-reading · Short enough to read twice

"Another catnip is an open-ended story. The clean-cut ones we don't talk about as much."