A good short story is like a good dessert - delicious, rich and just the right portion size. Canada is a nation of short stories — so we decided to highlight 12 of our favourite collections for you.

Have an unpublished short story of your own? Why not enter the CBC Short Story Prize? The grand prize is $6,000, publication in Air Canada enRoute magazine and a 10-day writers' residency at the Banff Centre.

• Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
• Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
• Simple Recipes by Madeliene Thien

• Traplines by Eden Robinson
• Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
• Arvida by Samuel Archibald

• Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
• Paradise and Elsewhere by Kathy Page
• We Are Not in Pakistan by Shauna Singh Baldwin

• The Best Place on Earth by Ayelet Tsabari
• Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
• Daddy Lenin and Other Stories by Guy Vanderhaeghe