Malayalam short story took its fledgling steps in the 20th century. Though the literary form shaped itself towards the end of the 19th century, the genre grew fast only after the 1930s. It bloomed so beautifully during the next thirty years that it fastly became a very popular form of literary expression and was readily accepted by the reading public.
The early exponents of the genre were writers such as Moorkkothu Kumaran, Oduvil Kunhikrishna Menon, Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, Ambadi Narayana Poduwal, M. R. K.C., K. Sukumaran, and E.V. Krishna Pillai.
The era, during which writers like Ponkunnam Varkey, P. Kesavadev, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, S.K. Pottekkatt, Uroob, K. Saraswathi Amma, Lalithambika Antharjanam, and Karoor Neelakanta Pillai wrote prolifically, can be considered one of the high points of short story.
The writers who followed them, like M. T. Vasudevan Nair, T. Padmanabhan, and Kamala Surayya, started what can be called the modernist trend in short-story writing. This was taken to its fullness by writers such as O.V. Vijayan, M.P. Narayana Pillai, Pattathuvila Karunakaran, Kakkanadan, M. Mukundan, Zachariah, and M. Sukumaran.
