🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Dan Chaon
Dan Chaon is an American author that is best known for his short stories, though he has written quite a few novels. The easiest thing that could be said about Dan Chaon as an author is the fact that he writes fiction. It is a difficult task categorizing Dan’s work in more specific terms than that. +Biography Dan Chaon was born in 1964. Adopted as a child, Chaon spent most of his earliest years in a small village outside of Sidney, Nebraska. Those people who do not know Dan well envision him as a pretty dark and demented individual, and that has something to do with the horrific nature of his stories. Readers often speculate about Dan’s childhood and the events he might have encountered to drive him down such a brooding and gloomy literary path. The author’s father worked construction.
All Book Series by Dan Chaon
The Best Girls
Series opener · book 1 of 6 · published 2019 Anthology · Min Jin Lee
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One
Series opener · book 1 of 19 · published 2009
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction
Book 11 of 19 · published 2018
Best Horror of the Year, Volume Eighteen
Latest in the series · book 19 of 19 · published 2026
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection
Series opener · book 1 of 7 · published 2004
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone
Book 2 of 7 · published 2007
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
Book 4 of 7 · published 2012
Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror
Latest in the series · book 7 of 7 · published 2016
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Dan Chaon?
Dan Chaon is an American author that is best known for his short stories, though he has written quite a few novels. The easiest thing that could be said about Dan Chaon as an author is the fact that he writes fiction. It is a difficult task categorizing Dan’s work in more specific terms than that. +Biography Dan Chaon was born in 1964.
Which Dan Chaon series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Disorder Collection series, the earliest of Dan Chaon's multi-book series: it opens with The Best Girls (2019) and runs to 6 books across 2019, ending with Loam (2019).
How many books has Dan Chaon written?
Dan Chaon has 42 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1995 and 2026. 25 of them belong to 2 named series — the largest being the Disorder Collection series with 6 books — and 17 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Dan Chaon's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Dan Chaon's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Disorder Collection (2019, 6 books).
How are Dan Chaon's books organised into series?
This guide splits Dan Chaon's 42 books into 2 named series and 17 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Disorder Collection (6 books, 2019); Best Horror of the Year (19 books, 2009–2026).