Best New American Voices 2005

Best New American Voices

by John Kulka (Editor), Natalie Danford, Francine Prose

Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, David Benioff, Ana Menendez, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, Jennifer Vanderbes, Alix Ohlin, and John These are just some of the acclaimed writers whose early work has appeared in Best New American Voices since its launch in 2000.

The 2005 edition features a new crop of promising stories selected by novelist Francine Prose, who continues the tradition of identifying the best young writers on the cusp of their careers. With pieces culled from hundreds of prestigious writing programs, such as the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Johns Hopkins, and from summer conferences including Sewanee and Bread Loaf-and with a complete list of contact information for these programs-this rich collection showcases tomorrow's literary stars.

A Harvest Original

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Peter Cipriano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, The 2005 “Best New American Voices” short story series served to be a good respite from the many long novels that I have reading in the past couple of months. Although many of the writers are not widely known, all the stories are well written. Your reading experience will not be wasted if you choose to read one story per night.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the introduction, guest editor Francine Prose states that when selecting the stories for inclusion into this collection, "what I found myself responding to most strongly had less to do with character, theme, and plot....". This worried me because those are aspects that I find a near necessity for me to enjoy a story. Unfortunately, reading the stories that she selected confirmed my fears. There are some decent stories here ("Farangs", "More Abandon", "Pine", "Brides", "You Are Here"), but the vast majority were not engaging at all.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

5-stars for MORE ABANDON by Joshua Ferris. It's a great read for people who enjoyed his first book "THEN WE CAME TO AN END." It has the same characters and office location, but it's a story that isn't in the book.

[b bb bbbb bbbbbbbb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple excellent stories, and overall good stuff.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good collection of short stories. there are about three absolutely amazing ones. the others are all entertaining and well written, at the very least.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to buy more of this series---I love short stories, and it is so interesting to read these collections by students.