New Stories from the South 2010: The Year's Best

New Stories from the South

by Amy Hempel (Editor)

Over the past twenty-five years, New Stories from the South has published the work of now well-known writers, including James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus, Barbara Kingsolver, John Sayles, Joshua Ferris, and Abraham Verghese and nurtured the talents of many others, including Larry Brown, Jill McCorkle, Brock Clarke, Lee Smith, and Daniel Wallace.

This twenty-fifth volume reachs out beyond the South to one of the most acclaimed short story writers of our day. Guest editor Amy Hempel admits, “I’ve always had an affinity for writers from the South,” and in her choices, she’s identified the most inventive, heartbreaking, and chilling stories being written by Southerners all across the country.

From the famous (Rick Bass, Wendell Berry, Elizabeth Spencer, Wells Tower, Padgett Powell, Dorothy Allison, Brad Watson) to the finest new talents, Amy Hempel has selected twenty-five of the best, most arresting stories of the past year. The 2010 collection is proof of the enduring vitality of the short form and the vigor of this ever-changing yet time-honored series.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Southern

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2010

About the author

Amy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College. Hempel was a former student of Gordon Lish, who eventually helped her publish her first collection of short stories. Hempel has been published in Harper's, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Bomb. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Ambassador Book Award in 2007, the Rea Award for the Short Story in 2008, and the Pen/Malamud Award for short fiction in 2009.

Reviews

[Douglas Lord · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read short stories because they are: A) short and B) that's all I can handle at the end of a long fricking day sometimes, OK, Hoss? So get off my back. NSFTS is a mixed bag; there seems to be a lot of misery in this "New South" (located somewhere outside Saginaw, MI, BTW). Swamps, miscarriages, arsonists, floods, angry stupid people, angry stupid teenagers, and really poor drivers. Like many contemporary short stories, these often go nowhere. And what they lack in movement, growth, and evolution is not made up by incisive perceptions. These authors present slices of unfamiliar lives in ways that are accessible, but also quite particular to the writer. Sometimes, like in Bret Anthony Johnston's "Caiman," a five-page-bang little gem, it's fine. But the "standing still" thing ruins so many others, like Ann Pancake's (anybody for flapjacks?) overly long "Arsonists" and particularly Tim Gautreaux's "Idols," where a fascinating premise—typewriter repairman inherits crumbling mansion, hires rebounding tattooed yokel to fix it—stretches on and on but goes nowhere. It could have been beautiful.

Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

adam atlas is good. but my god these stories are super sad, super graphic, some gems, but cut you like broken glass. the kind that hurts. amy hempel, you're one sick puppy, which is a good thing i guess, keep up the good work. now i gotta go get a bandaid.

[Marc Faoite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of short stories from some of America's most prestigious literary journals and some of it's most talented writers, some famous, some less well known. Highly recommended. I'll be looking for other editions in the series.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are not reading this annual publication, there is something seriously wrong with you! The beauty of the short story is that it's short -- you can dip into this volume of great fiction by writers with a Southern connection at will. Read the last one first, skip around! Whatever. Just read and enjoy some of the best writing from 2010. Once you start, you'll find it hard to stop, and yet you'll want to pause to think on what you just read before jumping into the next selection. Some stories are gritty, while others are hilarious. Most interesting is what each author has to say (or not say) about the genesis of his or her story. I've been reading this series for several years now and can't wait for the 2011 edition appear on the bookshelves. I'm even on the search for earlier volumes that were published before I discovered it for myself. Enjoy!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes for myself (not really a review, sorry folks) -

WORTH REREADING
Brad Watson "Noon" "Visitation"
Danielle Evans "Someone Ought to Tell Her There's Nowhere To Go" (Miley Cyrus, Iraqi vet, mall scheme)
Megan Mayhew Bergman "The Cow That Milked Herself" (veterinarians, pregnancy)
Emily Quinlan "The Green Belt" (party gone bad - quick, smart)
Stepehn Marion "The Coldest Night of the Twentieth Century" (prison outbreak, Lysol drunk)
Padgett Powell "Cry For Help From France" (self-explanatory)
Kenneth Calhoun "Night Blooming" (young man in the Dixie Land band)
Laura Lee Smith "This Trembling Earth" (Okeefanokee Swamp escape)

authors worth investigating - Bret Anthony Johnson, Adam Atlas, Ann Pancake

[Wendy Schauben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this collection. My favorite short stories were the deep and depressing pieces like Evans “Someone Ought To Tell Her There’s Nowhere To Go” and Pederson’s “Small and Heavy World.” One of the lessons I learned while reading these short stories is the importance of character development. Especially when writing or reading a short story, the character needs to stand out,to grow, or to fall. For example, in Rash’s “The Ascent” Jared, a young boy of 10 realizes his parents are addicted to meth. Throughout the novel the reader watches as Jared comes to the conclusion that his parents are headed towards death. Jared both rises and falls at the end of the story by killing himself in an abandoned plane, to go to “the place they were all headed.”

[Mark Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entire collection is deserving of a read. Other reviews have selected and explained their reasons for highlighting favorite stories and I have one as well.
Nightblooming by Kenneth Calhoun deserves extra kudos for his choice of narrator, characters and plot. An outsider, with only one thing in common with the group,makes for the perfect narrator. He stands aloof from the plot at times and other times the plot forces him into the group interaction. A masterful tale of lining up to die. Old age sucks. His characters know it, his narrator learns it, and most importantly so does the reader.

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of stories make up the 25th annual version of this anthology. Highlights include Kenneth Calhoun's NIGHTBLOOMING Aaron Gwyn's DRIVE, and Megan Mayhew Bergman's THE COW THAT MILKED HERSELF. I read this more than five years after they were first published, but unlike some Best Of collections, all of these stories sit in a Southern state of timelessness that is well worth your attention today.

[Elizabeth Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zomg yum yum yum. I am now officially committed to reading this series every year. This is a particularly good collection. I try to get rid of books after I have read them, but I will be hanging on to this book.

[Peg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading from these annual collections of short stories from Southern writers is a year-long delight. The book makes, not only good reading for yourself, but a good present or a night stand book in a guest room.

One of the best stories is Fish Story by Rick Bragg.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was hit or miss, but I hope it widens the audience for the always excellent stories of Ann Pancake, Kevin Wilson, and Wells Tower. I also look forward to reading more by Emily Quinlan.

[Walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ended up skipping most of the stories :(.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this, becoming a big Ron Rash fan, "Ascent" was fantastic. This collection often gets overlooked, but it shouldn't. Three from this collection made it into the BASS as well.

[Mary Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology. If you like short stories, get this book! I didn't see any "misses" in the quality. Consistently good.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I liked these stories but really thought the best ones started with Marjorie Kemper's "Discovered America". Tim Gautreaux is always a pleasure to read, as well.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some of the stories in this collection, but not all.

[Amy Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the Duke Libraries bookclub. I liked most of the stories, though they tended toward the dark and depressing.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good selection. B A Johnston's Caiman is poignant and terse and just perfect, but there are others that are pretty good also.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

a mix, of course. typical southern themes, but all well done. Interesting - added a statement from each author about what inspired each story.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first exposure to the New Stories from the South series. As I progressed through this anthology I was pleasantly aware that even though the American South was, in one way or another, a common link with most of them, the characters were not defined by Southern stereotypes and the dramatic tensions were not based on racial conflict, as was usually the case in most of the Southern stories I’ve been reading from the previous century.

My newly discovered gems in this collection were: “Someone Ought to Tell Her There’s Nowhere to Go” by Danielle Evans; “A Burden” by Wendell Berry; “Drive” by Aaron Gwyn; “Discovered America” by Marjorie Kemper; “Return Trip” by Elizabeth Spencer; “This Trembling Earth” by Laura Lee Smith; and “Visitation” by Brad Watson.

[Leslie N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story collections can be hit or miss when they contain works from various authors. It is interesting, as this series is coined 2010: The Year’s Best. One story in this book seemed to be exceedingly brilliant, some were okay, others were kind of boring and hard to settle into. ‘Best’ is subjective, even if these stories were published in popular literary journals; but it’s a good way to discover authors you may not have known about. This is the only volume I’ve read in the collection. Not sure if I will try another year.

[Maggie Koger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure there are great stories in this book and I didn't read it all. Too often I would wonder why I was reading them at all. I couldn't relate to many of the stories. I may just be wanting them to give me an opening that has something to do with life outside the narrow frame of the characters. Too often the next and the next seem like more of the same.

[Samantha Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of stories makes me immensely sad that I'm not a Southerner myself.