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BOOK
The Best American Short Stories 2007
$10.00

About this product:
Wonderfully eclectic, The Best American Short Stories 2007 collects stories by undeniable talents, both newcomers and favorites. These stories examine the turning points in life when we, as children or parents, siblings or friends or colleagues, must break certain rules in order to remain true to ourselves. In T.C. Boyle's heartbreaking "Balto," a 13-year-old girl provides devastating courtroom testimony in her alcoholic father's trial. Aryn Kyle's charming story "Allegiance" shows a young girl caught between her despairing British mother and motherly American father. In "The Bris," Eileen Pollack brilliantly writes of a son struggling to fulfill his filial obligations, even if this requires a breach of morality and religion. Kate Walbert's stunning "Do Something" portrays one mother's impassioned and revolutionary refusal to accept her son's death. And in Richard Russo's graceful "Horseman," an English professor comes to understand that plagiarism can reveal more about a student than original work.

Questions for Best American Short Stories Series Editor Heidi Pitlor

Each year's edition of the Best American Short Stories is edited by a prominent guest editor who makes the final selections for the collection--for 2007, it's Stephen King. But working alongside the guest editor is the series editor, who reads thousands and thousands of stories all year long and passes the best on to the guest editor. For years, Katrina Kenison held that one-of-a-kind role for the Best American Short Stories, but in 2007 she handed the reins over to Heidi Pitlor, a former editor at Houghton Mifflin and a novelist in her own right (her debut, The Birthdays, came out in 2006). We asked Pitlor a few questions about what many would consider a dream job.

Amazon.com: Congratulations: you now have one of those jobs that must make people say to you, "Oh my goodness, you just sit around reading stories all day! What a life!" Please dispel all relevant myths.

Pitlor: The key is to have young children. I have one-year-old twins, so I have yet to hear the question above.

I used to imagine Katrina Kenison, the former series editor, swinging in a hammock on a sunny day (there was always a hammock in my mind, and always sunshine), lost in her short stories, the twitter of birds somewhere nearby, a bonbon in her hand. I can assure you that none of the above applies to my day-to-day life--and I'm guessing it didn't apply to hers. Reading this volume of fiction requires intense concentration, large amounts of coffee, total quiet, a babysitter for my kids, and sadly, no bonbons, at least not on a regular basis. Still, I have no complaints. I do love my job and being able to read this much.

Amazon.com: Can you explain the process of selecting the best American short stories? What's your relationship as series editor with the year's guest editor (in this case, Stephen King)?

Pitlor: Magazines that publish fiction send copies to me. Literary journals, mainstream magazines, you name it. I probably receive three to four magazines a day. Typically, I read all of this fiction--more specifically, the short stories (no novel excerpts allowed) written by Americans or those who have made the United States their home. I choose 120 that I think are the best, and pass them along to the year's guest editor.

Stephen King wanted to read along with me, and so he went out and bought tons of magazines himself. We spoke quite often about what we'd read. But typically, I go off on my own for most of the year, pull the stories, and then work with the guest editor at the end of the year to help him or her choose the final twenty for the book.

Amazon.com: You're a novelist as well as an editor. How do you read all these different (or depressingly similar) voices every day and keep your own voice strong when you sit down to imagine your own work?

Pitlor: Good question! When I'm writing regularly--and I must admit that I need to get back to this--I try to write each day before I begin reading. Again, coffee plays a big role. I get up, take care of the twins for a few hours until the sitter comes, then take typically my third cup of coffee out to my office, which is above my garage. I write first, so that my mind is clear of other writers' voices. I try not to think too much when writing a first draft. For me, thinking sometimes leads to inadvertent stealing. If I'm trying to sort out some sort of puzzle in what I'm writing, it's too easy to remember another writer's approach to a similar one. If I can write a first draft quickly, I'm better off.

Amazon.com: In his introduction to this year's collection, King writes that many of this year's submissions felt like "copping-a-feel reading"--stories driven not by a need to be told, but the desire to show off for editors and other writers (rather than regular old readers). Did you have the same reaction? What was your sense of the year's reading?

Pitlor: I'll put it a different way than he did. I often felt that writers put on airs. To me, it's apparent when writers aren't being true to themselves, especially in their writing voice. I want to forget that I'm reading--unless being aware that I'm reading is exactly what the writer is after. But typically, I want to lose myself in the words, to forget that someone is behind them. I want to believe the characters more than that.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of stories that did feel true and urgent, that did take me out of myself for a brief while.

Amazon.com: Story writing seems to ride waves of influence, driven at various times by the models, say, of Updike or Barthelme or Carver. Is there a writer now who you feel is the most influential in the stories you read?

Pitlor: Carver still seems to be a big influence--I'm not sure his influence ever waned. Hemingway too, as well as Chekhov, Faulkner, Cheever, Flannery O’Connor, Philip Roth, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, Tim O'Brien. No one model comes to mind more than the others at this point.

Pitlor: There were many for both of us--this is the best part of the job. He and I frequently enthused to each other about this or that new writer. But also about great stories by more familiar writers--that can feel like a discovery too. I don't know, though--naming the most exciting writer feels a bit like admitting you have a favorite child.

BOOK
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition
Ernest Hemingway
$7.99

About this product:

THE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR

In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.

BOOK
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories
$8.90

About this product:
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.

Contributors and stories include: Mary Gaitskill, "A Romantic Weekend"; Thom Jones, "A White Horse"; Andre Dubus, "The Fat Girl"; Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried"; Chris Offutt, "Aunt Granny Lith"; Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"; Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"; Robert Stone, "Helping"; Mona Simpson, "Lawns"; Ann Beattie, "A Vintage Thunderbird"; Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl"; Stuart Dybek, "Chopin in Water"; Barry Hannah, "Testimony of Pilot"; John Edgar Wideman, "Daddy Garbage"; Ron Hansen, "Wickedness"; Denis Johnson, "Emergency"; Edward P. Jones, "The First Day"; John L'Heureux, "Departures"; Ralph Lombreglia, "Men Under Water"; Leonard Michaels, "Murderers"; Robert Olmstead, "Cody's Story"; Jayne Anne Phillips, "Home"; Susan Power, "Moonwalk"; Amy Tan, "Rules of the Game"; Stephanie Vaughn, "Dog Heaven"; Joy Williams, "Train"; Dorothy Allison, "River of Names"; Richard Bausch, "All The Way in Flagstaff, Arizona"; Carol Bly, "Talk of Heroes"; Scott Bradfield, "The Darling"; Kate Braverman, "Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta"; Richard Ford, "Rock Springs"; and Allan Gurganus, "Minor Heroism."

BOOK
Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories
Margaret Lucke
$5.98

About this product:
This guide to writing compelling, memorable short stories gives you all the essentials without wasted words. It tells you how and where to get ideas, how to establish and sustain excitement, how to create live, colorful characters, and how to plot, develop and bring home your story. It even includes exercises to help you perfect your story-telling skills. Full of tips and techniques that work, it makes an indispensable, reliable collaborator. You'll find it ideal whether you're studying alone or supplementing a creative or fiction writing course, conference or workshop.

BOOK
The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 7: The Frontier Stories
Louis L'Amour
$14.37

About this product:
There is no story more distinctly American than the western and no writer as great a master of the form as Louis L’Amour. In this seventh volume of L’Amour’s collected short stories, you’ll find some of his most popular characters, heroes who have become a part of our cultural legacy, as well as the ordinary men and women whose adventures are chronicled with an immediacy no reader can resist–or ever forget.

In Louis L’Amour’s frontier stories, the American West is the crucible in which character is tested, reputations are won or lost, and life always hangs in the balance. Struggling to survive against the elements, hostile Indians, or outlaws who prey upon the honest and hardworking, the men and women in these tales each come face-to-face with what they’re made of–often in moments that explode with the violence of an avalanche or the speed of a drawn gun. Here L’Amour demonstrates the unerring touch for detail and keen insight into human nature that lend these stories the power to thrill, surprise, and entertain readers of every generation.

A man driven by his faith in the woman he loves survives war, Indian massacre, and near starvation only to find his homecoming delayed by one last battle–under his own roof. To stop a range war, a ranch foreman stands up to his boss, his men, and conspirators who seem to have both right and might on their side. And in a town where fourteen men have already died under suspicious circumstances, a new sheriff by the name of Utah Blaine patiently sets a trap for a frontier serial killer.

Here are stories of honest thieves and crooked lawmen, of dream chasers and treasure hunters, of men and women hoping for a second chance and others down to their last. This rich and varied cast embodies not only the spirit of the West but the timeless struggle of the best and worst in us all, on a stage as big as the frontier itself. Full of suspense, mystery, adventure, this remarkable collection has everything that’s earned Louis L’Amour his well-deserved reputation as America’s favorite storyteller.

BOOK
Little Worlds : A Collection of Short Stories for the Middle School
Mary Page
$15.99

About this product:
The purpose of this text was to make available a large collection of stories that are high in literary quality yet accessible to middle-school students. Its widespread acceptance in schools throughout the country attests that this anthology has indeed achieved its goal. It presents students with a variety of issues, styles, conflicts, and points of view through the stories of Maupassant, Lessing, Hemingway, Welty, Hawthorne, Porter, as well as many others.

BOOK
2010 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market
Alice Pope
$9.94

About this product:
BEST RESOURCE AVAILABLE FOR GETTING YOUR FICTION PUBLISHED

For three decades, fiction writers have turned to Novel & Short Story WriterÂ’s Market to keep them up-to-date on the industry and help them get published. Whatever your genre or form, the 2010 edition of Novel & Short Story WriterÂ’s Market tells you who to contact and what to send them. In this edition youÂ’ll find:

• Complete, up-to-date contact information for 1,200 book publishers, magazines and journals, literary agents, contests and conferences.
• News with novelists such as Gregory Frost, Jonathan Mayberry, Carolyn Hart, Chelsea Cain, Mary Rosenblum, Brian Evenson and Patricia Briggs, plus interviews with four debut authors who share their stories and offer advice.
• Nearly 200 pages of informative and inspirational articles on the craft and business of fiction, including pieces on a writing humor, satire, unsympathetic characters, and genre fiction; tips from editors and authors on how to get published; exercises to improve your craft; and more.
• Features devoted to genre writing including romance, mystery, and speculative fiction.
• And—new this year—access to all Novel & Short Story WriterÂ’s Market listings in a searchable online database!

BOOK
American Short Story Masterpieces
$4.27

About this product:
America's most exciting and important writers are represented in this wonderfully rich collection of contemporary classics that date from the 1950s through the 1980s. Includes selections of James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth and more. HC: Delacorte.

BOOK
The Best American Short Stories 2005 (The Best American Series)
$2.93

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BOOK
Anton Chekhov's Short Stories (Norton Critical Editions)
Anton Chekhov
$10.86

About this product:
The thirty-four stories in this volume span Chekhov’s creative career. They present a wide spectrum of comic and serious themes and a variety of techniques. (His short novels, available in another Norton volume, Seven Short Novels by Chekhov, have been omitted.) Two of the stories have been translated for this edition by Professor Matlaw; the other translations, by Constance Garnett, Ivy Litvinov, and Marian Fell, have been revised in accordance with contemporary usage. Footnotes have been supplied wherever necessary to explain peculiarities of Russian life and the historical era in which Chekhov lived and wrote. "Backgrounds" includes a rich selection of Chekhov’s letters, in new translations by Professor Matlaw, and Gorky’s celebrated essay on Chekhov, translated by Ivy Litvinov. The critical essays offer general views of Chekhov’s art and achievement and detailed analyses of particular stories. The critics are D. S. Mirsky, A. B. Derman (whose essay has been translated from the Russian especially for this edition), Renato Poggioli, Gleb Struve, Donald Rayfield, Karl Kramer, Virginia Llewellyn Smith, and Nils Åke Nilsson. A Selected Bibliography directs readers to resources for further study. .