New Stories from the South 2002: The Year's Best [Paperback]

Shannon Ravenel (Editor), Larry Brown (Preface)

Book Description

Series: New Stories from the South | Publication Date: August 19, 2002

As Larry Brown explains in this year's preface, This is all that I have, this land called North Mississippi, home of my father, and grand-fathers, and great-grandfathers, and luckily for me, it turns out to be always enough. It's that land and everything around it-the intractable clay soil, the twisting rivers, the air heavy with humidity-that makes the South a character in its own right, and that permeates this year's collection.

The stories in the seventeenth volume of New Stories from the South begin with the land or the water or the weather, but it's their depth and richness that take us somewhere altogether new-the South, seen from a wholly new perspective, as if for the first time. From the mountains of Tennessee to the suburbs of New Orleans to a hollowed-out antebellum house to the center of Texas, this year's New Stories from the South turns out to be always enough.

Nineteen writers make their mark in this year's volume: Dwight Allen, Russell Banks, Brad Barkley, Doris Betts, William Gay, Aaron Gwyn, Ingrid Hill, David Koon, Andrea Lee, Romulus Linney, Corey Mesler, Lucia Nevai, Julie Orringer, Dulane Upshaw Ponder, Bill Roorbach, George Singleton, Kate Small, R. T. Smith, and Max Steele.

Each story is followed by the author's notes about its origin. Readers will also find an updated list of the magazines consulted by Ravenel and a complete list of all the stories selected each year since the series' inception in 1986.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

New Stories from the South is now in its 17th year, and once again editor Shannon Ravenel offers a broad sampling of the region's best work. With an introduction by Larry Brown, the 2002 edition includes 19 stories by authors like Russell Banks, as well as lesser-known talents. Set as far back as the Civil War (Dulane Upshaw Ponder's "The Rat Spoon") and as recently as the present, the 2002 collection places a heavy emphasis, intentional or not, on themes of loss and reconciliation. Some stories have dark and violent outcomes reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates's work, such as William Gay's "Charting the Territories of the Red" and Brad Barkley's "Beneath the Deep Slow Motion." Others tackle spiritual encounters at the end of lives lived with good intentions, like Aaron Gwyn's "Of Falling" and Lucia Nevai's "Faith Healer." Kate Small's "Maximum Sunlight," about a young Vietnamese woman's assimilation into Washington D.C., is a particularly lyrical piece about race in the South, while Andrea Lee's "Anthropology," about two black intellectuals reconciling their heritage, takes a more playful tone. In almost all cases, the stories show men and women struggling to remake themselves in the face of their realities. Similarly, these stories reinvent the Southern short story, one paragraph at a time, much as the South they depict continues its own slow reinvention. --Jane Hodges

From Booklist

Ravenel continues to do a superb job as editor of one of the most significant and eagerly anticipated annual collections of American short stories. Now in its seventeenth year, this series remains a showcase for the amazingly rich literary tradition of the South. Set in a distinct geographical, cultural, and social milieu that paradoxically fascinates and frustrates the rest of the country, these 19 short stories shimmer with the warmth, humor, and melancholy that define both the old and the new South. After a lyrical foreword by Larry Brown, both familiar and new voices spin tales stretching across a diverse topographical and emotional landscape. An enlightening postscript written by the author follows each story. The southern art of storytelling is still alive and thriving, as evidenced by this stellar collection. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (August 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123751
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123755
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great series, not best installment, February 26, 2003

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S. H. Wells (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Stories from the South 2002: The Year's Best (Paperback)

I've read every Stories from the South collection published (since 1986). Each year there are famous contributors. 2002 includes a first-rate piece by Romulus Linney "Tennessee" and Doris Betts continues giving readers her literary gems with "Aboveground." And there are those who have not won as much critical attention. Up-and-coming George Singleton's "Show-and-Tell" was one of the funniest pieces in the collection, and Aaron Gwyn's "Of Falling" was probably one of the most powerful. The contributions by David Koon, Dwight Allen, and Julie Orringer also desrve mention for their technical and thematic brilliance. This collection has pieces to tug the heartstrings in every direction.

Four stars because, like usual, this collection delivers wonderful and varied pieces; however, I took a star off (please note it was only one star) because there were a few sub-par pieces. Kate Small's "Maximum Sunlight" seemed only tangentially "from the South" as it was set in Washington, DC; moreover, it was overtly politcal at the cost of artistic merit, crying "Im southern too" too loudly. Bill Roorbach's "Big Bend" was a geographically interesting setting but poorly executed; the voice felt inauthentic, especially the hackneyed, non-native way he deployed "y'all." Similarly, Lucia Nevai's "Faith Healer" dragged through stereotypes until some racist Yankees found closure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LITERARY DIM SUM FROM THE SOUTH?, May 5, 2003

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Stories from the South 2002: The Year's Best (Paperback)

This is the first installment of this well-respected series that I have read - and I'm impressed. It's definitely a feast - so I won't apologize for the `title' above. I won't try to tell you that I absolutely loved everything in this book - but I found several that blew me away, and I've added a few authors to my `seek further' list as a result.

I've been a huge fan of William Gay ever since I first read any of his work - and his story `Charting the territories of the red' in this volume is no disappointment. I'll pick up anything I see by him without question. New discoveries (and I'm speaking for myself here...) in this volume include Romulus Linney (his story `Tennessee' here is simply amazing); Dwight Allen (who contributes `End of the steam age'; Aaron Gwyn, a promising young talent (`Of falling'); and the incredible `Rat spoon' by Dulane Upshaw Ponder. Also notable is R. T. Smith's `I have lost my right'; the dark `Beneath the deep, slow motion' by Brad Barkley; Bill Roorbach's touching `Big Bend'; and another very dark tale, `The bone divers', by David Koon.

The other stories here are all well written - these are simply the ones that touched me most deeply. Some of them are so good they made my mouth drop open from time to time. I'll definitely be checking out some of the other volumes in this series, as well as some of the works by the authors I mentioned above - some of them have novels or collections forthcoming.