Award-winning author of Notable American Women Ben Marcus brings us this engaging and comprehensive collection of short stories that explore the stylistic variety of the medium in America today.

Sea Oak by George Saunders
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Do Not Disturb by A.M. Homes
Gentleman's Agreement by Mark Richard
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender
The Caretaker by Anthony Doerr
I'm Slavering by Sam Lipsyte
The Old Dictionary by Lydia Davis
The Father's Blessing by Mary Caponegro
The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders by Aleksandar Hemon
The Paperhanger by William Gay
People Shouldn't Have to be the Ones to Tell You by Gary Lutz
Histories of the Undead by Kate Braverman
You Drive by Christine Schutt
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine by Jhumpa Lahiri
Down the Road by Stephen Dixon
All American by Diane Williams
X Number of Possibilities by Joanna Scott
Two Brothers by Brian Evenson
Tiny, Smiling Daddy by Mary Gaitskill
Someone to Talk to by Deborah Eisenberg
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
Where I Work by Ann Cummins
The Sound Gun by Matthew Derby
Short Talks by Anne Carson
Up the Old Goat Road by Dawn Raffel
Scarliotti and the Sinkhole by Padgett Powell
Letters to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth
Field Events by Rick Bass