Looking for some snack-size listening, rather than a full meal? Short stories on audio are perfect for the times when you don’t want to devote yourself to a multihour audiobook. Think short commutes, waiting rooms, and small bits of in-between time while running errands.

Short stories often pack a punch. Listening to a single story, then letting yourself digest it, allows for that power to really sink in. One could, of course, just keep listening and take in several stories at a time. But see what happens when you let a single story linger in your mind long after you’ve finished listening.

In the audiobook format, short stories come in many flavors: collections from a single author or multiauthor anthologies and performances by a single narrator or by an ensemble.

Author Lauren Groff reads her own new story collection, Brawler (Penguin Audio, Feb. 24), in an Earphones Award–winning performance. As our review raves, “This splendid short story collection demonstrates Groff’s gift for capturing telling moments and crafting striking, often heart-wrenching stories.” Authors are not always the best narrators of their own work (there’s a reason narrating is a separate profession with its own set of skills!), but Groff succeeds wonderfully. Our reviewer writes, “She reads with empathy and paces her stories well, and her tone, honed from performances, brings the listener close to the action.…Groff’s compelling short stories seem made for audio.”

Narrator André Santana’s vocal versatility matches the range of the late Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s writing, and the stories collected in Posthumous Stories (Macmillan Audio, 2025), translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews and Natasha Wimmer, are an excellent way to sample Bolaño’s work. Some of these short stories from one of the great authors of Latin American literature are very short, including one that is a single, long sentence. According to our review, “Santana elevates each story, however brief, with tone, cadence, and pacing, bringing Bolaño’s brilliance vividly to life.”

A multiauthor, multivoice anthology is the best way to try a variety of authors, stories, and performance styles. It’s also a great way to discover new or new-to-you authors or narrators whose bodies of work you might decide to explore further. You might choose an anthology based on genre or theme, and the stories might be classic or contemporary.

The Best Short Stories 2025: The O. Henry Prize Winners (Random House Audio, 2025), edited by Edward P. Jones, is a well-done anthology of 20 stories from 20 authors, including Alice Hoffman, Dave Eggers, and Wendell Berry, and performed by an ensemble of narrators, including Rebecca Lowman, JD Jackson, Ari Fliakos, Kaleo Griffith, Angel Pean, and more. Our review explains that these short stories “ignite the quotidian with a sense of wonder” and “do so much with so few words, and the impeccable vocal partnerings propel listeners into their worlds.”

Imagine having these tiny gems in your ear while you’re going through your own quotidian routines: riding the subway, waiting in line at the grocery store, or fitting in a few minutes on the exercise machine.

Jennifer Dowell is the audiobooks editor.