A Catalog of Storms: Collected Short Fiction

by Fran Wilde

From sentient storms to walkabout skyscrapers, mythical creatures to mysterious museum guides, the characters and tales of the 14 stories in Fran Wilde's A Catalog of Storms challenge and subvert expectations.

Here you'll find the Nebula and Hugo Awards finalists "A Catalog of Storms" and "Clearly Lettered in a Most Steady Hand," and multiple Best of the Year anthology selections such as "Shadow Plane" and "The Rain Remembers What the Sky Forgets."

The collection represents a decade of genre-spanning, celebrated stories from one of SFF’s most inventive and lyrical voices.

Genres: Fantasy

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2025

About the author

Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published nine novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years' best anthologies.

The Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.

Reviews

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy often literalizes metaphor in order to bring out emotional truth. In this collection, a lot of strange things happen to people's bodies that illustrate what is happening in their mind. A woman who has to work three jobs is constantly losing various bones that fly off to different parts of the solar system. In a town beset by storms, townspeople look for citizens with the talent to tame the storms. A nefarious amusement park owner enslaves a creature to serve him in keeping the park popular, and the protagonist discovers the power to resist.

Many of the stories feature characters struggling to live in a world rigged against them, often economically. I think many of us can identify.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic collection of some of my favorite short stories including The Rain Remembers what the Sky Forgets, Please Stop Printing Unicorns, and Building Migration.
I was able to get a copy of the ARC and cannot wait for the collection to be at my local bookstore.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories by Fran Wilde, with original publication dates spanning from 2015 to 2023. The more recent stories, in particular, are stellar. The older stories didn't always land as well for me, but the ones that did land made me glad I purchased this collection. There are a few stories I know of that I wish were in here, so I look forward to more collections in the future.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen some of these stories collected elsewhere, but it's honestly great to have Wilde's short story work in one place. We get a great blend of ecology focused sci fi and fantasy, sand some gorgeous stories besides.