Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elephant Bangs Train | 1969 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 2 | The Oldest Man And Other Timeless Stories | 1971 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 3 | Jewel of the Moon | 1985 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 4 | Hearts of Wood: and Other Timeless Tales | 1986 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 5 | The Hot Jazz Trio | 1989 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 6 | Tales from the Empty Notebook / The Empty Notebook | 1995 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
Kotzwinkle’s short story collections span the full length of his career, from Elephant Bangs Train in 1969, his first adult publication and a collection of compact surreal fables, to Tales from the Empty Notebook in 1995. Each collection has its own personality rather than feeling like a holding pen for miscellaneous pieces, which is unusual and speaks to how seriously Kotzwinkle has always taken the short form.
Jewel of the Moon (1985) collects 15 stories and is probably the most representative single volume of his adult fiction writing. The Hot Jazz Trio (1989) is built around three longer pieces with a musical and fantastical flavor. Hearts of Wood (1986) contains timeless tales in a mode closer to fable, while The Oldest Man and Other Timeless Stories (1971) established early that Kotzwinkle was interested in myth and archetype as much as contemporary life.
The collections are not as well known as his novels, but readers who come to them after The Fan Man or Doctor Rat tend to find they illuminate the same preoccupations: the collision between the mundane and the magical, the comedy of human ambition, and the strange inner logic of dreamlike situations. They are also a good way to sample his range without committing to a full novel.