Edited Collections
The Best American Short Stories 2013 ▸
Edited by author Elizabeth Strout, this year’s collection boasts a satisfying “chorus of twenty stories that are by turns playful, ironic, somber, and meditative” (Wall Street Journal). With the masterly Strout picking the best of the best, America’s oldest and best-selling story anthology offers the traditonal pleasures of storytelling in voices that are thoroughly contemporary.
Edited and with an introduction by Elizabeth Strout
“As our vision becomes more global, our storytelling is stretching in many ways. Stories increasingly change point of view, switch location, and sometimes pack as much material as a short novel might. It’s the variety of voices that most indicates the increasing confluence of cultures involved in making us who we are.”
The Stories of Frederick Busch ▸
A contemporary of Ann Beattie and Tobias Wolff, Frederick Busch was a master craftsman of the form; his subjects were single-event moments in so-called ordinary life. The stories in this volume, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, are tales of families trying to heal their wounds, save their marriages, and rescue their children. In Busch's work, we are reminded that we have no idea what goes on behind closed doors or in the mind of another.
Edited and with an introduction by Elizabeth Strout
““Be brave,” Frederick Busch admonished aspiring writers in an interview he gave in 2003. “Keep your knees unbent.” Courage on the page mattered to this writer, and those reading through this collection of stories will find Busch’s writing to be relentlessly brave. ”
Ethan Frome & Summer ▸
This edition presents Wharton's two most controversial stories, which she considered inseperable, in one volume for the first time. Set in frigid New England, both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences. This text includes newly commissioned notes.
Edited and with an introduction by Elizabeth Strout
“Whether the setting is the splendid beauty of a New England summer or the freezing landscape of its winter, these tales are told against a geographical backdrop that imbues its characters with a legacy of seclusion seemingly impossible to shake. These are stories of people who don’t get out.”