The Pushcart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses (2007 Edition) (Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses) [Paperback]

Bill Henderson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses | Publication Date: November 18, 2006

The most honored literary series in America begins its fourth decade.

With a brilliant collection of stories, essays, memoirs, and poems selected from hundreds of the best small presses, the annual Pushcart Prize sets the standard of excellence for literary anthologies. Each year it invites nominations from a wide array of little magazines and small presses and presents over sixty of the best; and each year its annual volume is hailed as a touchstone of literary discovery.

For its thirty-first anniversary celebration, the Pushcart Prize surpasses its own reputation with an astonishing diversity of writers—some renowned and many others destined for fame.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A fictional stranger asks a woman to carry a package onto an airplane; a real '70s housewife sublimates her ambitions through the preparation of extravagant French cuisine; a poet writes of "Hearing News from the Temple Mount in Salt Lake City": this year's gathering of small-press fiction, essays and poetry from venerable stocktaker Henderson is uneven, if sporadically edgy. Standouts center on identity and include Dina Ben-Lev's memory of anti-Semitic pig farmers in Quebec; Mary Karr's confession of her unlikely conversion to Catholicism; and Katherine Karlin's story about a lesbian oil worker trying to be one of the boys in a Delaware Valley refinery. Also noteworthy are Benjamin Percy's short story about smalltown boys who join the reserves and end up in Iraq—with their fathers; Karen E. Bender's tale about a routine TriBeCa sublet that goes awry after September 11; Jonathan Carroll's story about how a lawyer's obsession with scaffolding leads to a Kafkaesque metamorphosis; and Philip Levine's tribute to the late poet Thom Gunn, a narrative dominated by the attention-grabbing John Berryman. Some pieces are unsatisfying (such as David James Duncan's rant on fundamentalism), but this sampler whets the appetite for nonmainstream publications and perspectives. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This venerable yet ever youthful annual gathering of the best small-press short stories, essays, and poetry enters its fourth decade with pomp and circumstance as the man behind the pushcart, Bill Henderson, is recognized for his inspired and unwavering support of literature with awards from the National Book Critics Circle and from Poets & Writers. And once again, Pushcart presents resounding testimony to the vibrancy of American letters. With two outstanding poets, Eleanor Wilner and Linda Bierds, serving as guest editors, the poetry selections are varied and provocative, including stinging poems by Sharmila Voorakkara, Kevin Prufer, and Maxine Kumin, to name but a few standouts. This finger-on-the-pulse compendium also showcases sharp, illuminating, and even important essays, including Wendell Berry's "The Way of Ignorance" and David James Duncan's "What Fundamentalists Need for Their Salvation." And the fiction is potent and especially smart and incisive, with stories by the likes of Kate Braverman, Richard Burgin, Jonathan Carroll, Elizabeth McCracken, and Kevin Moffett. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 550 pages
• Publisher: Pushcart Press; 1st- Ed edition (November 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888889446
• ISBN-13: 978-1888889444
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Collection, January 9, 2007

By 

Caroline A. McCoy (New Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pushcart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses (2007 Edition) (Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses) (Paperback)

Editor, Bill Henderson, as always, has collected in the 2007 edition of the Pushcart Prize some very exciting and memorable fiction. I have an intense interest in the short-story form so I will not comment upon the poetry. Short stories that have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by such excellent literary reviews such as The Missouri Review, The Antioch Review, Ploughshares and endless others have been chosen, along with their poetry counterparts. One of my favorites was titled "Dogged" by Risteard O'Keitinn, a first-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, yet published elsewhere. The story is about a "mean" tough dog and the language is repleat with masculine images, words relevant to junkyards, trucks, bars and an interetingly seedy side of life. It's ending grabs the heart in way so powerful, so tragic, so utterly human that this story will remain a classic in my mind, and I would think, surely in others'. Beyond many that I have read recently, this writer has mastered the form of the short-story brilliantly.

Then there is the story titled "Laundry" by Maureen Stanton. Not only is it an interesting style of literary presentation, but the wealth of information, which one could never have imagined, about the history and intracacies of "laundry" is fascinating.

So far, having read about a third of this book, there is yet a piece that was chosen for this edition about which I would wonder why. This book is my year's companion, my stimulator, my research, my relaxation. I cannot say enough positive things about this collection.