The Pushcart Prize XXVII: Best of the Small Presses, 2003 Edition [Paperback]

Bill Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003 | Series: Pushcart Prize

The most honored literary series in America, The Pushcart Prize has been named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and hailed with Pushcart Press as "among the most influential in the development of the American book business" by Publishers Weekly "The ex-officio house organ for the American literary cosmos."—Chicago Tribune

For the 2003 edition, The Pushcart Prize presents scores of brilliant short stories, poems, and essays selected from hundreds of presses and literary journals with the help of over 200 distinguished contributing editors. This is a stunning presentation of new and celebrated authors, picked from almost 8,000 nominations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scouring small magazines and presses for the best of the year's fiction, poetry and nonfiction, Henderson offers up his longest collection yet. Though length and quality are not directly correlated-a substantial number of navel-gazing short stories might easily have been eliminated-several gems crop up in the rough. Two of the best pieces are personal essays inspired by their authors' unusual jobs. In "Line," John Hale describes how his experiences as a surveyor changed his way of seeing things; Jeffrey A. Lockwood's "To Be Honest" is a cheeky account of an entomologist's efforts to offer agricultural justification for the mass murder of grasshoppers by the application of pesticides and the introduction of "natural" enemies. Some of the standout stories include "Cabeza" by Monique de Varennes, in which the housewife protagonist buys a pig's head at the market and leaves it in the refrigerator for days, disturbing her family, and Karl Iagnemma's "On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction," a mathematically precise love story set on a frigidly cold Michigan campus ("What a world!... where a failed engineer with a crooked nose can skate couples with a syrup-haired woman who smells archival"). It is the excitement of discovering promising new writers that draws most readers to the Pushcart, but several better-known names appear here as well, including Joyce Carol Oates, Louise Glck, Mary Jo Bang, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bradford Morrow, Ben Marcus, Robert Pinsky, Melanie Rae Thon, Aimee Bender and Richard Bausch. Though tougher standards might have produced a smoother selection, there is much to appreciate in this 27th annual collection.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Winning a Pushcart Prize has become a rite of passage in American literary life as each set of prizewinners nominates the next, and, accordingly, the annual volume has evolved into a vibrant exhibition of adventurous yet meticulously crafted writing, a best-of-the-year extravaganza that makes readily available in one place a wealth of otherwise scattered small-press offerings. The coeditors this time around include two outstanding poets, Pattiann Rogers and Carl Phillips, and this diverse and high-energy anthology of poetry, essays, and fiction achieves a particularly satisfying mix of established and new writers. Among the former are Chitra Divakaruni, Linda Gregerson, Melanie Rae Thon, Karen Volkman, Dan Chaon, Richard Bausch, and Robert Pinsky. New voices include poet Matt Yurdana; Katherine Taylor, author of a painfully funny memoir, "Traveling with Mother"; Karl Iagnemma, a research scientist whose work shapes his short story, "On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction"; and Carolyn Alessio, author of "Casualidades," a beautifully resonant and redemptive story. And we could go on, happily naming all 67 contributors. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Pushcart Press (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888889357
• ISBN-13: 978-1888889352
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,744,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT SERIES, August 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pushcart Prize XXVII: Best of the Small Presses, 2003 Edition (Paperback)

I wish there were some way this annual collection of poetry, fiction and essays could become more visible, as BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES and PRIZE STORIES are. Rather than taking the cream off the top of The New Yorker, Harper's and so forth, the editors and jurors dig into lesser known and circulated periodicals. This particular volume was one of the better ones. The main theme seems to be alienation and search for connection, but the characters deal with their situations quite differently. In "Yangban" we enter a traditional Korean marriage, and in "Cabeza" we visit a middle class American (California) marriage, and they are different, yet the same. In both, wives struggle for identity beyond "helpmate," and such situations reflect the American scene. "The Worst Degree of Unforgiveable" seems gimmicky at first, but soon becomes hypnotic. "Amazing Grace" starts out telling us that a young married man was blinded in a tragic accident. Ten years later he miraculously regains his sight, and that's when his troubles begin. How could you not want to finish this one! I fell in love with Candace in "Candace Counts Coup," even through she is an overweight, grubby, eccentric unpaid artist who, in my real life, I probably wouldn't invite into my home, but she has a wonderful heart and a steady moral compass. If you're feeling down, Candace will lift your spirits.
There were a few pieces that I didn't finish or even begin to understand, I guess those in in know would call them "minimalist or "experimental" fiction.
In any case, there is a lot to like here, a lot of new worlds to visit, a lot to think about. I recommend any volume in this series for it's originality, variety and depth.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars seems to get worse every year, December 15, 2003

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Pushcart Prize XXVII: Best of the Small Presses, 2003 Edition (Paperback)

I don't know what is going on with the Pushcart series. It used to be such a valuable volume to read, but lately it gets weaker with every passing year. I'm not going to even talk about the poetry contained within. None of it is worth mentioning. And in their prose there are only four pieces that are really good. Sit down with this volume at your book store or library and just read them, don't purchase this book.

Mark Ray Lewis "Scorduatura" (fiction)
Cornelia Nixon "Lunch at teh Blacksmith" (fiction)
Jeffrey A. Lockwood "To Be Honest" (memoir)
Bradford Morrow "Amazing Grace" (fiction--though it has a weak ending)