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.

Edited by Lex Williford and Michael Martone

CONTENTS

LEX WILLIFORD AND MICHAEL MARTONE

Foreword

ROSELLEN BROWN

Introduction

ALEXIE, SHERMAN

This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

ATWOOD, MARGARET

Death by Landscape

BAMBARA, TONI

Cade Raymond's Run

BANKS, RUSSELL

Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story

BARTH, JOHN

Click

BARTHELME, DONALD

The School

BASS, RICK

Wild Horses

BAUSCH, RICHARD

The Man Who Knew Belle Starr

BAXTER, CHARLES

Gryphon

BELL, MADISON SMARTT

Customs of the Country

BLOOM, AMY SILVER

Water

BRAVERMAN, KATE

Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta

BUTLER, ROBERT OLEN

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

CANIN, ETHAN

The Year of Getting to Know Us

CARVER, RAYMOND

Errand

CISNEROS, SANDRA

Woman Hollering Creek

CUNNINGHAM, MICHAEL

White Angel

DIAZ, JUNOT

Fiesta 1980

DYBEK, STUART

Pet Milk

EARLEY, TONY

The Prophet from Jupiter

ERDRICH, LOUISE

Saint Marie

FORD, RICHARD

Rock Springs

GATES, DAVID

The Mail Lady

GAUTREAUX, TIM

Same Place, Same Things

HANSEN, RON

Nebraska

HEMPEL, AMY

In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried

JOHNSON, DENIS

Emergency

JONES, EDWARD P.

Marie

JONES, THOM

Cold Snap

KAPLAN, DAVID MICHAEL

Doe Season

KAUFFMAN, JANET

Patriotic

KINCAID, JAMAICA

Girl

LEAVITT, DAVID

Territory

MCKNIGHT, REGINALD

The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas

MOORE, LORRIE

You're Ugly, Too

MUKHERJEE, BHARATI

The Management of Grief

MUNRO, ALICE

Meneseteung

OATES, JOYCE CAROL

Ghost Girls

O'BRIEN, TIM

The Things They Carried

OZICK, CYNTHIA

The Shawl

PROULX, ANNIE

Brokeback Mountain

RICHARD, MARK

Strays

SMITH, LEE

Intensive Care

SONTAG, SUSAN

The Way We Live Now

TAN, AMY

Two Kinds

THON, MELANIE RAE

First, Body

VAUGHN, STEPHANIE

Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog

WALKER, ALICE

Nineteen Fifty-five

WIDEMAN, JOHN EDGAR
Fever

WILLIAMS, JOY

Taking Care