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Best New American Voices
Best New American Voices 2006
The best new American voices are heard here
Writers like Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, David Benioff, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, Jennifer Vanderbes, and John Murray are just some of the acclaimed authors whose early work has appeared in this series since its launch in 2000.
The new volume features a new crop of promising stories selected by renowned novelist Jane Smiley, who continues the tradition of identifying the best young writers on the cusp of their careers. Culled from hundreds of writing programs like the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Johns Hopkins and from summer conferences like Sewanee and Bread Loaf-and including a complete list of contact information for these programs-this exciting collection showcases tomorrow's literary stars.
Writers like Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, David Benioff, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, Jennifer Vanderbes, and John Murray are just some of the acclaimed authors whose early work has appeared in this series since its launch in 2000.
The new volume features a new crop of promising stories selected by renowned novelist Jane Smiley, who continues the tradition of identifying the best young writers on the cusp of their careers. Culled from hundreds of writing programs like the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Johns Hopkins and from summer conferences like Sewanee and Bread Loaf-and including a complete list of contact information for these programs-this exciting collection showcases tomorrow's literary stars.
324 pages, softcover
First published October 3, 2005
About the author
Jane Smiley
147 books2,857 followersJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained a A.B. at Vassar College, then earned a M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996, she taught at Iowa State University. Smiley published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. It was adapted into a film of the same title in 1997. In 1995 she wrote her sole television script produced, for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Her novella The Age of Grief was made into the 2002 film The Secret Lives of Dentists.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), is a non-fiction meditation on the history and the nature of the novel, somewhat in the tradition of E. M. Forster's seminal Aspects of the Novel, that roams from eleventh century Japan's Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to twenty-first century Americans chick lit.
In 2001, Smiley was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained a A.B. at Vassar College, then earned a M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996, she taught at Iowa State University. Smiley published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. It was adapted into a film of the same title in 1997. In 1995 she wrote her sole television script produced, for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Her novella The Age of Grief was made into the 2002 film The Secret Lives of Dentists.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), is a non-fiction meditation on the history and the nature of the novel, somewhat in the tradition of E. M. Forster's seminal Aspects of the Novel, that roams from eleventh century Japan's Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to twenty-first century Americans chick lit.
In 2001, Smiley was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 13, 2009
This edition, edited by Jane Smiley, and the edition editted by Sue Miller were on clearance at Borders for a buck! What a find. Some really solid stories and good inspiration. Way to represent, Emerson College!
Okay, I finally finished this trove of excellent, inspiring, unusual stories. I really loved the energy of them, how Jane Smiley truly collected a batch of page-turning, quirky literary fiction. I have learned that I dig her as an editor but am skeptical of Sue Miller. (While the Good Mother is a contemporary classic, the first story in her collection nearly put me to sleep!) For now, I strongly endorse the Jane Smiley edition (2006) for all writers and fans of contemporary fiction, and will review the next edition when I get to it.
Okay, I finally finished this trove of excellent, inspiring, unusual stories. I really loved the energy of them, how Jane Smiley truly collected a batch of page-turning, quirky literary fiction. I have learned that I dig her as an editor but am skeptical of Sue Miller. (While the Good Mother is a contemporary classic, the first story in her collection nearly put me to sleep!) For now, I strongly endorse the Jane Smiley edition (2006) for all writers and fans of contemporary fiction, and will review the next edition when I get to it.
October 10, 2015
A pretty decent collection of stories. "A New Kind of Gravity" is one of the best short stories I've ever read. "Alice's House", "Going After Lovely" and "Pilot" were also very, very good. "Leave of Absence" was the only truly bad apple in the bunch. Most of the other stories were interesting, but forgettable.
Read
March 18, 2011Leave of Absence, Lyndon, A New Kind of Gravity, The Rust Preventer, Trampoline, Watermark, Useless Beauty or Notes on Esquire's Things A Man Should Never Do After the Age of 30, The Jupiter's In, Alice's House, Liberty, Twinless.
April 15, 2008
Al has a story published in this book!
September 1, 2011
Not a great collection, but there are a few gems. Worth reading for the short story "Backfire" alone.
Currently Reading
September 3, 2011USELESS BEAUTY OR NOTES ON ESQUIRE'S "THINGS A MAN SHOULD NEVER DO AFTER THE AGE OF 30"
BEGIN WITH AN OUTLINE
BEGIN WITH AN OUTLINE
February 11, 2013
Like any collection of short stories, there are some hits and some misses in this. Many of them were trying a bit too hard to be different or deep for my taste, but there were a few gems.
July 27, 2015
I totally admit that I bought this book for Jennifer Shaff's "Leave of Absence"mow hitch I absolutely loved.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews