Looking for short stories similar vibe to A S Byatt

[RainbowConfusion]

I love her short stories (and novels, but not in the mood for novels at present unless shortish), so would like to discover similar writers. I like the slightly romantic, academic prose, the way her observations flow without any concrete structure/drama.

I especially loved 'the matisse stories' and 'elementals'.

Anything you could suggest for me? I really enjoyed 'the mark on the wall and other short fiction' by virginia woolf for similar reasons. However, again, not in the mood for novels.
Thank you!

No suggestions OP but am following as I loved the Matisse stories too.

Helen Simpson if you haven't read her already.

(I also love AS Byatt, sad there won't be any more.)

Thank you!
Yes, it is sad, no one quite like that now.

I hesitate to put them together in the same thread but have you read any Margaret Drabble? Her books are highly intelligent. Not in the same style as AS Byatt but worth looking at for themselves.

I asked chat gp.

1. Angela Carter – The Bloody Chamber

Gothic, feminist retellings of fairy tales. Dense, symbolic, and myth-rich—Carter and Byatt often get compared for their cerebral sensuality.

1. Margaret Atwood – Stone Mattress: Nine Tales

Wry, mythic, and darkly comic stories that explore memory, revenge, and aging—with a metafictional bite.

1. Jeanette Winterson – The World and Other Places

Lyrical, postmodern, and philosophical. Plays with form, like Byatt does, and explores love, identity, and myth.

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Art, Nature, and the Metaphysical

1. Helen Simpson – Constitutional or Hey Yeah Right Get a Life

Sharper and more contemporary in tone, but shares Byatt’s interest in domestic and intellectual lives—especially women balancing inner and outer worlds.

1. Tessa Hadley – Married Love or Bad Dreams

Quiet, precise, psychologically rich. Hadley’s interest in education, creativity, and women’s emotional histories resonates with Byatt fans.

1. Ali Smith – The First Person and Other Stories

Playful, with a metafictional flair. Smith dances between realism and the surreal—think Byatt’s The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye.

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Myth, Magic, and Fairy Tale

1. Sylvia Townsend Warner – Kingdoms of Elfin

Delicate, anthropological fairy stories with biting wit and strangeness. Underrated but magical and clever.

1. Italo Calvino – Cosmicomics or Invisible Cities

Surreal, idea-driven, and poetic. Less emotional than Byatt, but a similar mythic intellect.

1. Leonora Carrington – The Complete Stories

Dreamlike, surreal, and rich with symbolism. For readers who like the stranger end of Byatt’s spectrum.

If you like the Matisse stories, have a look at the short story Ann Hilder on Amazon, inspired by the woman LS Lowry painted throughout his life, but who some critics think may never have existed. Full disclosure, I’m the author, but the reviews on Amazon have blown me away - and none of them are from my mum! The story was an award winner.