In her new collection, San Francisco short story writer Lori Ostlund delivers nine tales about finding your place, exploring your desire and battling your fears. Long known for her captivating syntax and sharp dialogue, she continues to surprise with stories about loneliness and compassion that meander just a little bit beyond what the reader might expect—in fascinating if not eye-raising ways. All of which ask, “Are you happy?”
In her new volume “Are You Happy?” (Astra House, 272 pages, $26, May 6, 2025), Ostlund continues to embrace compassion in her writing: “I have a fondness for my characters, and when I come to the writing, a certain compassion toward them. And when I’m writing the pieces or thinking about how to end them, I’m always thinking about hopefulness,” she says.
The author, whose work has appeared in the “Best American Short Stories” and the “PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories” as well as in ZYZZYVA, The Kenyon Review, New England Review and other journals, says her stories reflect “preoccupations that I always kind of come back to” about “identity and place—and leaving a place,” with characters often haunted by a sense of isolation.
“Loneliness is an epidemic in this country, and I’m very aware of it,” she says.
She and her wife once ran a furniture store in Albuquerque, which allowed her to observe this quality in an interesting array of people. “I always knew people were lonely—but I was surprised at just how lonely they were.”
“I hope a reader recognizes themselves or feels some companionship,” she adds.
While the stories reflect these serious topics, Ostlund’s writing is often humorous. “I always say I write funny, sad stories. I know that there’s a darkness to them. I’m a Midwesterner: We like dark humor, so maybe that makes it feel not quite so dark to me, sometimes. I’m used to it.”
Ostlund’s first collection of stories, “The Bigness of the World,” received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the California Book Award for First Fiction and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award.
“Just Another Family,” a novella and the final piece in “Are You Happy?” appears in “2024 Best American Short Stories.”
Having released the novel “After the Parade” in 2015, the master story author returned to short pieces noting that she thinks she is “more naturally or temperamentally suited” to writing them.
A teacher of composition and creative writing for many years, she says she loves “the messiness of novels—with more room to sprawl a little bit” as a writer, but believes her style especially suits the short story (and clearly judges agree).
“I like digression, and so you would think that in some ways I would be more drawn to novels. But I like the precision of short stories: I’m a perfectionist,” Ostlund says. “I think we forget sometimes when we’re telling stories that every sentence should count. That there’s a way to make each sentence do just a little bit more even if it’s just playing with syntax.”
“It’s just a form that I love,” Ostlund says of short stories. “More of the plot questions get answered with novels, and people are more at ease with that. But that’s exactly what attracts me to short stories—that open-ended, what-comes-next? kind of thing.”
Lori Ostlund may be contacted at loriostlund@gmail.com.