A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestseller Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer.
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.
Viet Thanh Nguyen—Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Sympathizer—selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published this year.
Aimee Bender. The Tailor and the King from Fairy Tale Review
Nathan Blum. Here Now from Ploughshares
Ayşe Papatya Bucak. The Writer Writes from Prison from Copper Nickel
Nathan Englander. What Are We Doing, What Have We Done from The Yale Review
Louise Erdrich. Love of My Days from The New Yorker
Carolyn Ferrell. The Horror from Ploughshares
Eliot Fox. The Women’s Hospital from Ploughshares
Calvin Gimpelevich. High School from Joyland
Samantha Hunt. Hangman from The Yale Review
Sigrid Nunez. The Rabbit’s Foot from The Yale Review
Joyce Carol Oates. The Frenzy from The New Yorker
George Saunders. The Moron Factory from The Atlantic
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. Nocturnal Creatures from The New Yorker
Akhil Sharma. Ritu from The New Yorker
Jim Shepard. The Devil’s Broom from Zoetrope
Josie Tolin. Fucking Illinois People from The Rumpus
Ava Tomasula y Garcia. The World from McSweeney’s
Vu Tran. Like Evening from McSweeney’s
Tiphanie Yanique. Looking House from Conjunctions
Paul Yoon. The New Coast from The New Yorker
