The Best American Short Stories 2018

Best-selling, award-winning, pop culture powerhouse Roxane Gay guest edits this year’s Best American Short Stories, the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction.

“I am looking for the artful way any given story is conveyed,” writes Roxane Gay in her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2018, “but I also love when a story has a powerful message, when a story teaches me something about the world.” The artful, profound, and sometimes funny stories Gay chose for the collection transport readers from a fraught family reunion to an immigration detention center, from a psychiatric hospital to a coed class sleepover in a natural history museum. We meet a rebellious summer camper, a Twitter addict, and an Appalachian preacher—all characters and circumstances that show us what we “need to know about the lives of others.”

• Best American Essays 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018 (The O. Henry Prize Collection)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• Best American Travel Writing 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• Best American Poetry 2018 (The Best American Poetry series)
• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 (The Best American Series ®)
• Best American Short Stories 2017 (The Best American Series ®)
• Best American Sports Writing 2018 (The Best American Series ®)