The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 [Paperback]

Lex Williford (Editor), Rosellen Brown (Introduction), Michael Martone (Draft Writer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 6, 1999

Selected from a survey of more than 200 English professors, award-winning short-story writers, novelists, and fiction workshop directors, a remarkable collection of North American literature written since 1970.

Sherman Alexie • Margaret Atwood • Toni Cade Bambara • Russell Banks • John Barth • Donald Barthelme • Rick Bass • Richard Bausch • Charles Baxter • Madison Smartt Bell • Amy Bloom • Kate Braverman • Robert Olen Butler • Ethan Canin • Raymond Carver • Sandra Cisneros • Michael Cunningham • Junot Diaz • Stuart Dybek • Tony Earley • Louise Erdrich • Richard Ford • David Gates • Tim Gautreaux • Ron Hansen • Amy Hempel • Denis Johnson • Edward P. Jones • Thom Jones • David Michael Kaplan • Janet Kaufman • Jamaica Kincaid • David Leavitt • Reginald McKnight • Lorrie Moore • Bharati Mukherjee • Alice Munro • Joyce Carol Oates • Tim O'Brien • Cynthia Ozick • Annie Proulx • Mark Richard • Lee Smith • Susan Sontag • Amy Tan • Melanie Rae Thon • Stephanie Vaughn • Alice Walker • John Edgar Wideman • Joy Williams

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

It's debatable whether the fact that there are now almost 800 college English departments offering ``fiction-writing majors and minors,'' a fact noted by the editors of this hefty anthology, is cause for hope or alarm. It is at any rate certain that, as the editors go on to observe, the teachers laboring in these departments have become important arbiters, for their students and thus eventually for the wider society, of what modern fiction is and should be. The selections here are of interest because they represent the taste of these teachers; some 50 of them responded to a questionnaire sent out by Williford and Martone, who hoped to identify the stories by American writers published since 1970 to which those queried returned most often as ``readers, writers, and teachers.'' The choices that Williford and Martone (both writers and professors themselves) eventually made, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend to be weighted toward younger talent: there's far more fiction from the 1980s and 90s than the 70s here. The choices, again unsurprisingly, tend to reflect the emergence of a wider variety of voices (Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros), and preoccupations than were evident in the 1970s. That said, the 50 stories assembled here (by Margaret Atwood, Donald Barthelme, Ethan Canin, Louise Erdrich, Amy Hempel, Jamaica Kincaid, Rick Bass, Tim O'Brien, Annie Proulx, Melanie Rae Thon, and John Edgar Wideman, among others) certainly do offer a fair survey of styles and interests at the end of the century. While the volume is likely (as, one assumes, it was intended) to quickly find its way onto the reading lists in many of those 800 courses, it also provides a useful overview of our tastes in short fiction at the moment, as well as further evidence of the extent to which American writers are still producing fine and original work in this form. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Lex Williford has taught in the writing programs at Southern Illinois University and the University of Alabama. His collection of stories, Macauley's Thumb, was co-winner of the 1993 Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1ST edition (December 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684857960
• ISBN-13: 978-0684857961
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I want more volumes like this, October 25, 2001

By 

Tony Jacobs (Lancaster, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (Paperback)

I didn't want this book to end; the stories were so enjoyable. Some were so intense I had to reread them immediately. I would love to take a writing course to try emulating them or using them as inspiration. One complaint: like many of these anthologies the editors don't give a hint of what to expect. Stories are ordered alphabetically by author's last name, but curiously each leads to the next. This volume is much better than ones that try to pick the best story (or stories) of the year and more enlightening than single author collections.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Treasure Chest Of Short Fiction, March 5, 2003

By 

Michael Coffin (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (Paperback)

I was introduced to this anthology in a writing course. While compulsory reading is seldom as enjoyable as elective reading, I found myself returning to this collection of short stories long after the course ended. Stuart Dybek's "Pet Milk", a warm and rich introspection on the transition from childhood to adulthood, got me hooked and I soon read every story in this collection. Anyone who enjoys good writing but struggles to find time to read, or who appreciates finely crafted short fiction will enjoy these short but interesting stories. Highly recommended.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection, September 20, 2001

By 

F. Mercer "bibliophile" (Phoenix, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (Paperback)

This is a wonderful selection of contemporary short fiction featuring a variety of authors and points of view and a great diversity of subject matter. Stories deal with such varied topics as homosexuality, the Holocaust, Native American mysticism and small time crooks. Women writers are well represented. This collection features some very different choices, including a ghost story from Joyce Carol Oates.
This collection will prove an invaluable resource for budding writers and literature majors alike. This would also be a great primer for someone unfamiliar with the most contemporary short fiction.