Everyone has their favorites. This is a list I've compiled over time from various sources.

1. “Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular" by Rust Hills

2. “Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction” by Catherine Brady

3. “From Where You Dream” by Robert Olen Butler

4. "How Fiction Works” by James Wood

5. "Reading Like a Writer” by Francine Prose

6. "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott

7. “Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life” by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi

8. “The Art of Subtext” by Charles Baxter

9. “Wonderbook" by Jeff Vandermeer

10. "This Won't Take But A Minute Honey” by Steve Almond

11. “The Habit of Being: Letters" by Flannery O’Connor

12. “The Story and Its Writer, An Introduction to Short Fiction” by Ann Charters

13. “The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity” by Louise DeSalvo

14. Literary biographies: Hermione Lee's biographies of Penelope Fitzgerald and Willa Cather

15. "the making of a story" by Alice LaPlante

16. "The Art of the Short Story" by Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn

17. Some MFA programs post their required reading lists online and are worth a look. UNC-Wilmington, for example, http://uncw.edu/writers/mfa/documents/mfareadinglist.pdf

18. "Steering the Craft" by Ursula K. Le Guin

19. "Writing Fiction" by Janet Burroway

20. "Zen in the Art of Writing" by Ray Bradbury

21. "Thrill Me" by Benjamin Percy

22. "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" by George Saunders

23. "The Lie That Tells A Truth" by John Dufresne

24. "Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer" by Roy Peter Clark

25. "Object Lessons: the Paris Review presents the art of the short story"

26. "Plot & Structure" by James Scott Bell

27. "Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form" by Madison Smartt Bell

28. "Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative" by Jane Alison

29. "Sudden Fiction: American Short Stories" by Robert Shapard and James Thomas

30. "New Sudden Fiction" by Robert Shapard and James Thomas

31. "Flash! Writing the Very Short Story" by John Dufresne

32. "Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology" by H. K. Hummel and Stephanie Lenox

33. "The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story" by Grant Faulkner