Best New American Voices 2010: Contemporary American Fiction and Short Stories from Top Writing Programs Including Iowa and Johns Hopkins

Best New American Voices

by John Kulka, Natalie Danford

Bestselling novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro brings her expertise to this year’s volume of Best New American Voices. Now in its eleventh year, this series gathers the best fiction from hundreds of nominations submitted by writing programs such as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Johns Hopkins, and from summer conferences such as Sewanee and Bread Loaf. Joshua Ferris, Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, Lauren Groff, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, and Nam Le are just some of the acclaimed authors whose early work has appeared in this series since its launch in 2000. Discover for yourself the dazzling variety of great fiction being produced in the top writers' workships--with a complete list of contact information included--and find the best new American voices here first.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

351 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2009

Reviews

[Martha]

Never heard of this series before; picked it up cheap at Powell's. There seemed to be a quality of sameness in the tone, style of the stories.

[Matt]

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they are doing this series anymore, but if that is the case, this is a high note to go out on. Nothing absolutely blew me away the way some stories had in previous years had, but every single story in this collection was decent at worst. Among all of the above average to not quite outstanding stories, it's tough to pick a favorite. Mine is probably "Some Things I've Been Meaning to Ask You", but all of them are at least worth a read.

[Rachel]

This anthology deals with stories that came out of various writing conferences and MFAs around the country. Pretty much everyone is relatively new in their careers, and it's so great that they have a platform! It's also great that we have the chance to read such compelling stories.

Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories and I wonder that the ones I didn't might of had to do with personal taste. There were some definite themes that editor Dani Shapiro went after, particularly absent fathers and broken families in general. Some might say this is tripe and overdone, but I feel the family is a primary place to experience the complex outcroppings of human relationships.

My favorite stories are probably "Bethlehem Is Full" by Booomer Pinches, which deals with a young couple traveling to Australia after they abort their baby, and "Cape Town" by Claire O'Connor, where a mother and daughter travel to South Africa in the light of a fatal diagnosis. I suppose latching onto new experiences in the face of loss really speaks to me. :P But what speaks to me most of all is that these writing programs foster such great literature. I'm psyched to sign up for a new program!

[Justin]

It's the usual mixed bag: a few stories that are really great, and a few that maybe could have gone through workshop again. I feel like the problem with this series is that there's one guest editor every year, and a lot of the time you end up reading stories that have similar plots or conceits, b/c the editor has a particular topic or two he/she is interested in (in this case, so many of these stories had to do with absent fathers). And of course, the subject matter skews young, although that's not something I'd typically complain about. All the same, congrats to everybody who made it in here.

[Stephen Dorneman]

This collection of short stories from America workshops and writing programs tends to favor stories with exotic settings, over-the-top characters, and layers of richness and subtext, occasionally at the expense of clarity. Still, plenty to admire, enjoy, and learn from in here. Standouts for me were David James Poissant's "Lizard Man," Claire O'Connor's "Cape Town," and David Lombardi's "Flight."

[Jennifer]

WOW! And I have only read the first story!

[Brigid Duffy]

I'm sincerely upset that this series seems to have been discontinued. Every story in this book is a must-read for any aspiring short story writer.