A collection of the year's best short stories, selected by National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee and series editor Heidi Pitlor.

"Without stories, we cannot live well," shares guest editor Min Jin Lee, describing how storytelling affects and nurtures readers. The Best American Short Stories 2023 features twenty pieces of short fiction that reflect a world full of fractured relationships, but also wondrous hope. A lifelong

...

Seldom occupying more than a couple of pages, Williams' stories are headed by a number, one to 99, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist has a one-of-a-kind gift for capturing both the absurdity and the darkness of everyday life. In Ninety-nine stories of God, she takes on one of mankind's most confounding preoccupations: the Supreme Being. This series of short, fictional vignettes explores our day-to-day interactions with an ever-elusive...

Set in rural Vermont, this collection of stories follows women at the brink of discovering their own power, exploring the complexities of gender and power imbalances in a way that transforms normal life into something mysterious, unknown, and sometimes confusing.

A hilarious collection inspired by a former Saturday Night Live writer's real experiences in Hollywood, chronicling the absurdity of fame and the humanity of failure in a world dominated by social media influencers and reality TV stars.

"It has been more than thirty years since the term "flash fiction" was first coined, perfectly describing the power in the brevity of these stories, each under 1,000 words. Since then, the form has taken hold in the American imagination. For this latest installment in the popular Flash Fiction series, James Thomas, Sherrie Flick, and John Dufresne have searched far and wide for the most distinctive American voices in short-short fiction. The 73 stories...

Infused with the keen insight of Joyce Carol Oates and haunting power of Kelly Link, a radiant collection of linked stories that explore the vulnerability, resilience, and hidden desires of women, following six girls over the course of sixty years, from their first semester at boarding school to the twilight of their lives.

The thirty-three stories in this volume prove that American short fiction maybe be our most distinctive national art form. As selected and introduced by Tobias Wolff, they also make up an alternate map of the United States that represents not just geography but narrative traditions, cultural heritage, and divergent approaches.

"Contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Lauren Groff has selected an exciting and engaging variety of stories by an international array of both celebrated and emerging writers. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Groff, fascinating observations from the winning writers on what inspired their work, and an extensive and useful directory of magazines...