The Best American Short Stories 2020

by Curtis Sittenfeld, Heidi Pitlor

Overview

“To read their stories felt to me the way I suspect other people feel hearing jazz for the first time,” recalls Curtis Sittenfeld of her initial encounter with the Best American Short Stories series. “They were windows into emotions I had and hadn’t had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships.” Decades later, Sittenfeld was met by the same feeling selecting the stories for this year’s edition. The result is a striking and nuanced collection, bringing to life awkward college students, disgraced public figures, raunchy grandparents, and mystical godmothers. To read these stories is to experience the transporting joys of discovery and affirmation, and to realize that story writing in America continues to flourish. 

THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2020 INCLUDES T. C. BOYLE • EMMA CLINE • MARY GAITSKILL 

ANDREA LEE • ELIZABETH McCRACKEN • ALEJANDRO PUYANA WILLIAM PEI SHIH • KEVIN WILSON and others

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328485373
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Series:	Best American Series
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	413,043
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

CURTIS SITTENFELD is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, Eligible, and the forthcoming Rodham, which have been translated into thirty languages. She is also the author of the short story collection You Think It, I'll Say It and her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, the Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories. Her nonfiction has been published inthe New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Glamour, and broadcast on public radio’s This American Life. A native of Cincinnati, she currently lives with her family in Minneapolis.

Heidi Pitlor is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been the series editor for The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays, The Daylight Marriage, and Impersonation.

Hometown:

Washington, D.C.

Date of Birth:

August 23, 1975

Place of Birth:

Cincinnati, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Stanford University, 1997; M.F.A., University of Iowa (Iowa Writers¿ Workshop), 2001

Website:

http://www.curtissittenfeld.com

Table of Contents

SELENA ANDERSON: Godmother Tea
T. C. BOYLE: The Apartment
JASON BROWN: A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed
MICHAEL BYERS: Sibling Rivalry
EMMA CLINE: The Nanny
MARIAN CROTTY: Halloween
CAROLYN FERRELL: Something Street
MARY GAITSKILL: This Is Pleasure
MENG JIN: In the Event
ANDREA LEE: The Children
SARAH THANKAM MATHEWS: Rubberdust
ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN: It’s Not You
SCOTT NADELSON: Liberté
LEIGH NEWMAN: Howl Palace
JANE PEK: The Nine-Tailed Fox Explains
ALEJANDRO PUYANA: The Hands of Dirty Children
ANNA REESER: Octopus VII
WILLIAM PEI SHIH: Enlightenment
KEVIN WILSON: Kennedy
TIPHANIE YANIQUE: The Special World

Editorial Reviews

"These 20 masterfully crafted short stories, selected by Sittenfeld, are an incredible entry to the popular series...Outstanding and well worth the read."—Booklist, STARRED review —

From the Publisher

This varied collection of short stories, selected by author Curtis Sittenfeld, includes works from authors T.C. Boyle, Mary Gaitskill, Elizabeth McCracken, and others, all of which originally appeared in publications ranging from THE NEW YORKER to MCSWEENEY’S. Sittenfeld herself provides an extensive introduction to the audio collection, describing her criteria for selecting these 20 stories from the 120 she received. She also shares what she loved about the selections. The works themselves are skillfully delivered by an assortment of accomplished narrators who maximize the impact of their glimpses into what Sittenfeld describes as "windows into emotions I had and hadn’t had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships.” S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile

This varied collection of short stories, selected by author Curtis Sittenfeld, includes works from authors T.C. Boyle, Mary Gaitskill, Elizabeth McCracken, and others, all of which originally appeared in publications ranging from THE NEW YORKER to MCSWEENEY’S. Sittenfeld herself provides an extensive introduction to the audio collection, describing her criteria for selecting these 20 stories from the 120 she received. She also shares what she loved about the selections. The works themselves are skillfully delivered by an assortment of accomplished narrators who maximize the impact of their glimpses into what Sittenfeld describes as "windows into emotions I had and hadn’t had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships.” S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile