American Short Fiction

This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter.

Anthony Bourdain chases the fumigation truck in Bergen County, New Jersey. Dave Eggers tells it straight: Illinois is Number 1. Louise Erdrich loses her bikini top in North Dakota. Jonathan Franzen gets waylaid by New York's publicist...and personal attorney...and historian...and geologist. John Hodgman explains why there is no such thing as a "Massachusettsean."

Kyle Luman is on the abyss of deep despair. After the loss of his wife, he sees no point to his life other than being the obligatory father to his two children. Living with his family in Connecticut had been his life. Without her, he has no hope. His mother invites him and the children to live with her in Three Oaks, Texas, his hometown. In Three Oaks, he finds renewed friendships, spiritual awakening and love. But he, his friends and his newfound love are also battered by the unseen evils of self-centeredness, envy, jealousy, greed, racism, power-grabbing and political corruption. Kyle ...

The greatest short story writers strive to achieve a single, dramatic effect, a feature which the early masters of this genre perfected. Although the short story came from Europe, it was reborn in America and reached a pinnacle of superb form on these shores by the turn of the 20th century. In so many of our best writers, we hear echoes of a pioneer ethos that sustains the heart of a great literature. Here are 12 of America's best.

The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. Celeste Ng—Puschcart Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere—selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published this year.

With lively writing and illuminating examples, David Caplan argues that two characteristics mark the vast, contentious literature. On the one hand, several of America's major poets and critics claim that America needs a poetry equal to the country's distinctiveness. They advocate for novelty and for a break with what is perceived to be outmoded and foreign.

At once fiercely immediate and complex in their implications, “The Shawl” and “Rosa” succeed in imagining the unimaginable: the horror of the Holocaust and the emptiness of its aftermath. They were written in 1977 but were first published in the early 1980s in The New Yorker. Both “The Shawl” and “Rosa” won first prize in the O. Henry Prize Stories and were chosen for Best American Short Stories.

This collection is a short-story lover's dream. Included are 17 classic works, representing the finest American writers in the genre. Included are "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, "The One Million Pound Bank Note" by Mark Twain, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.

Charles thought he had it all - until a devastating betrayal and the shattering loss of his family drove him to living on the streets. Beatrice is the first person who's truly cared about him in a long time. Little by little, he's finding reasons to care about rebuilding his life. Drawn to Charles and the temptation of a second chance, Beatrice is faced with the hardest of decisions. But his insight, secrets - and the reminder of a profound past encounter - will give her unexpected inspiration, gratitude, and the strength she needs to find her way - perhaps in time for Christmas.

From the award-winning author of Chemistry comes a sharp and poignant short story that follows a young medical student working in clinical research and grappling with the realities of a future in her chosen field.

This is a small tale of a big betrayal.

On a snowy Christmas Eve in an unnamed American city, the archangel Michael wanders the streets. He is alone and hungry, his clothes tattered, and when he sees his face reflected in a store window, it is that of a young African American boy. Who will offer him food and shelter and who will turn him away? And when he becomes a blonde, freckle-faced child, is his fate different?

After attending a Christmas party at one of Atlanta’s hottest R & B clubs, Raya Williams catches the eye of Major Bennett. One too many drinks land her in bed with the incredibly sexy man. Doing the walk of shame, she doesn’t expect to ever see him again until he appears at the bank she works at. His reckless mouth and rough exterior makes her even more attracted to him.​ What was supposed to be a one and done situation turns into a holiday affair. Things seemed to be going smoothly until Raya learns of Major’s heartache. With his cold and hot ways she battles on whether to let him ...

Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver's mature writing and give his devoted fans a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver's writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have already entered the canon of modern literature.

A Steamy BWWM, Close Proximity Instalove Romance Angela: I never expected to catch the eye of a man like him—a heartbreakin' male escort watching me from across the street like I was his next meal. But the more I tried to fight it, the harder it became to ignore the way he pulled me in—was I about to fall into temptation or should I keep my distance? Angel: She didn’t know I watched her—day after day, night after night—from my balcony, like she was made just for me. My own private little show. I was a paid lover with a cold heart, but the shy, beautiful woman across the street had...

Based off today’s hottest, ratchetest, dopest hashtags, bringing you laughter, crazy, and whole lot of story. In the vein of the Wayans Brothers, Chris Rock, and shows like In Living Color, Authoress Sh’aniQu’a takes a new look at Urban Literature. Bandettra was born and raised in Cockygate, stripping to make ends meet and take care of her mother and kids. No father in the picture, baby daddy drama galore, and a need for a boss to sweep her off her feet, she decided to take a thug up on his offer to prove to him she was the one meant to be his main chick. De’von, a Boss, just ...

No nation has ever achieved the literary diversity of America. From nativist humor to immigrant triumph, Americans have recorded their visions and hopes better than anyone

In a quiet suburb of New Delhi, two next-door neighbors develop a friendship: one, a young woman engaged to be married, and the other, Nadine: a woman in her 60s living with her second husband. We follow these two women through their phone calls and visits together, diving deeper into Nadine's storied past: With her larger-than-life personality and proclivity to defy society's conventions, her insight weighs heavily on her young friend, about to face a major turning point of her own.

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.