Ender's Game - The original short story published in Analog, August, 1977

http://www.incwell.com/ipulp/endersGAME/index.html
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An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.

Known for his use of a time-twist and irregular time use.

Beware this Wikipedia article spoils the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge

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"For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

A famous "short" story by modern scifi god Harlan Ellison.

In pretty much all other cases the conversation has to start with "Have you read this story?" Here you can tell it, to anyone and everyone. 6 words, and yet somehow an entire story flashes right into your brain.
Source(s):
It's short enough and powerful enough that once you hear it, you never forget it.

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It would be cheesy to answer with one of my own. Cheesy, unture and arrogant.

I think one of the most underrated short story writers I recently discovered as a short story writer is W. Somerset Maugham. To have to name just one story is difficult but if pressured I'd say "The Traitor" because it shows how good is not entirely good and bad is not entirely bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashenden
Source(s):
A lot of reading.

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Science Fiction: "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.
Human, sympathetic, but also very good writing including the manipulation of language to display the narrator's various internal states.

Fantasy: "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bison.
A very interesting take on what technology means, and the motivations and connections people have to one another and to the world.

Horror: "Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft (or "Graveyard Shift", by Stephen King, which might as well be a modern retelling). Very creepy "things that go bump in the night" sort of stories.

Literary (Classic): "Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. Maybe a novella, but one of the best stories, and ghost stories, out there.

Literary (Modern): "The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges. Twist your brain around fun, and very well translated for the English version I read.
Source(s):
An English degree and teaching English to students in high school using all the stories and many more above.

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It's hard to pick, so here are a few:
- "2BR02B" by Kurt Vonnegut
Read it free here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21279
- "Teddy" by J.D. Salinger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_(story)
- "Sometimes They Come Back" - Stephen King
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sometimes_They_Come_Back
- "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" - Harlan Ellison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream
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The Cold Equations, by Tom Godwin

(it gets a lot of criticism, but nevertheless it's a very powerful story that makes an important point)
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