By Carrie

Looking for interesting and engaging short stories? Storyville can help! It is an app for the iPhone or iPad that delivers a quality short story straight to your device every week.

Most stories are by reputable authors and are sourced from recently published collections, though the creators also promise ‘unearthed gems by masters of the form.’ A six month subscription is $4.99 (USD), which is a good price for twenty-plus stories. The app allows you to receive your stories on more than one personal device and makes it easy to share what you are reading through Facebook and Twitter (though friends will have to buy the app themselves to access the actual story). The app is available through the iTunes.

This could be a great way for teachers and librarians to discover new short story writers and collections to stock for older students. Short stories have been in the news lately, with the BBC announcing that it would cut back to one short story reading a week on Radio 4 next spring. Authors such as Neil Gaiman and Joanne Harris responded with a tweetathon designed to support the short story form and Gaiman wrote a great blog post outlining his views in The Guardian.

Do you find it difficult to find engaging short stories for yourself and your students? Do you think Storyville could help?

image by Steve Rhodes