Selected from a survey of more than 200 English professors, award-winning short-story writers, novelists, and fiction workshop directors, a remarkable collection of North American literature written since 1970.

Sherman Alexie • Margaret Atwood • Toni Cade Bambara • Russell Banks • John Barth • Donald Barthelme • Rick Bass • Richard Bausch • Charles Baxter • Madison Smartt Bell • Amy Bloom • Kate Braverman • Robert Olen Butler • Ethan Canin • Raymond Carver • Sandra Cisneros • Michael Cunningham • Junot Diaz • Stuart Dybek • Tony Earley • Louise Erdrich • Richard Ford • David Gates • Tim Gautreaux • Ron Hansen • Amy Hempel • Denis Johnson • Edward P. Jones • Thom Jones • David Michael Kaplan • Janet Kaufman • Jamaica Kincaid • David Leavitt • Reginald McKnight • Lorrie Moore • Bharati Mukherjee • Alice Munro • Joyce Carol Oates • Tim O'Brien • Cynthia Ozick • Annie Proulx • Mark Richard • Lee Smith • Susan Sontag • Amy Tan • Melanie Rae Thon • Stephanie Vaughn • Alice Walker • John Edgar Wideman • Joy Williams

More than 200 English professors, award-winning short-story writers, novelists, and fiction workshop directors were surveyed and asked to select the best literature written since 1970. The short stories included in this anthology represent the best short fiction of the past three decades.

Selected from a survey of more than 200 English professors, award-winning short-story writers, novelists, and fiction workshop directors, a remarkable collection of North American literature written since 1970.

Sherman Alexie - Margaret Atwood - Toni Cade Bambara - Russell Banks - John Barth - Donald Barthelme - Rick Bass - Richard Bausch - Charles Baxter - Madison Smartt Bell - Amy Bloom - Kate Braverman - Robert Olen Butler - Ethan Canin - Raymond Carver - Sandra Cisneros - Michael Cunningham - Junot Diaz - Stuart Dybek - Tony Earley - Louise Erdrich - Richard Ford - David Gates - Tim Gautreaux - Ron Hansen - Amy Hempel - Denis Johnson - Edward P. Jones - Thom Jones - David Michael Kaplan - Janet Kaufman - Jamaica Kincaid - David Leavitt - Reginald McKnight - Lorrie Moore - Bharati Mukherjee - Alice Munro - Joyce Carol Oates - Tim O'Brien - Cynthia Ozick - Annie Proulx - Mark Richard - Lee Smith - Susan Sontag - Amy Tan - Melanie Rae Thon - Stephanie Vaughn - Alice Walker - John Edgar Wideman - Joy Williams

Lex Williford has taught in the writing programs at Southern Illinois University and the University of Alabama. His collection of stories, Macauley's Thumb, was co-winner of the 1993 Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Contents

Acknowledgments 
Foreword 
Introduction by Rosellen Brown 
Russell Banks - Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story 
Donald Barthelme - The School 
Rick Bass - The Hermit's Story 
Richard Bausch - The Fireman's Wife 
Charles Baxter - The Disappeared 
Amy Bloom - Silver Water 
T. C. Boyle - Caviar 
Kevin Brockmeier - The Ceiling 
Robert Olen Butler - Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot 
Sandra Cisneros - Never Marry a Mexican 
Peter Ho Davies - Relief 
Janet Desaulniers - After Rosa Parks 
Junot Diaz - Nilda 
Anthony Doerr - The Caretaker 
Stuart Dybek - We Didn't 
Deborah Eisenberg - Twilight of the Superheroes 
Richard Ford - Communist 
Mary Gaitskill - Tiny, Smiling Daddy 
Dagoberto Gilb - Winners on the Pass Line 
Ron Hansen - Wickedness 
A. M. Homes - A Real Doll 
Mary Hood - How Far She Went 
Denis Johnson - Car Crash While Hitchhiking 
Edward P. Jones - Marie 
Thom Jones - The Pugilist at Rest 
Jamaica Kincaid - Girl 
Jhumpa Lahiri - A Temporary Matter 
David Leavitt - Territory 
Kelly Link - Stone Animals 
Reginald McKnight - The Kind of Light Th at Shines on Texas 
David Means - The Secret Goldfish 
Susan Minot - Lust 
Rick Moody  - Boys 
Bharati Mukherjee - The Management of Grief 
Antonya Nelson - Female Trouble 
Joyce Carol Oates - The Translation 
Tim O'Brien  - The Things They Carried 
Daniel Orozco - Orientation 
Julie Orringer - Pilgrims 
ZZ Packer - Brownies 
E. Annie Proulx  - The Half-Skinned Steer 
Stacey Richter - The Cavemen in the Hedges 
George Saunders - Sea Oak 
Joan Silber - My Shape 
Leslie Marmon Silko - Tony's Story 
Susan Sontag - The Way We Live Now 
Amy Tan - Two Kinds 
Melanie Rae Thon - Xmas, Jamaica Plain 
Alice Walker - Nineteen Fifty-five 
Steve Yarbrough - The Rest of Her Life 
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