This week, just in time for the big short story party, Penguin Press published The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, selected and with an introduction by John Freeman, whose resume certainly qualifies him. He knows the work of many of these authors because, in his role as editor at Granta, he has not just read but has edited their work.

Freeman has selected thirty-seven short stories, arranged chronologically from 1972 to 2019. It’s a great selection that provides some great stories but also demonstrates how diverse the modern American short story is. Things are not perfect in the publishing world, but I doubt we’d be able to find such a selection from work published from the 1920s through the 1960s.

I absolutely love a collection of short stories and to see which ones the editor choses out of so many stories. I really love that this is a modern collection. Many collections include old/classics. This is a great collection that focuses on the present day. Great selections.

Penguin has put together a solid collection of the names and texts to know in short fiction from 1972 to the present. Editor John Freeman provides insight into the thematic trends that flow through the texts in his introduction. While most of the included works from the 20th century can be found in many anthologies, the stories from the year 2000 to the end of the book feel fresh and engaging. Freeman has captured a range of voices and genres with authors that are easily recognizable from contemporary best-selling lists. The book could easily be used in a secondary or post-secondary academic setting and would be equally appropriate as a general read. There is a brief biographical note about each author in the final pages, but the stories are absolutely the stars of this anthology.

Thank you to John Freeman, Penguin Books, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review

What a great opportunity to read some of the best short stories of the last fifty years. I enjoyed reading stories by familiar authors like Raymond Carver and Isaac Bashevis Singer as well as those by authors I wasn't as familiar with like Ted Liu and Ted Chiang. The two stories that stick with me the most are St. Lucie's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, by Karen Russell, and The Red Convertible, by Louise Erdrich. I've found several authors I want to read more of. This is a first-rate collection of recent short fiction.

This is a thoughtfully put together collection of significant contemporary short fiction. Some of the choices are predictable - The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambera, Paley's A Conversation with My Father, Jamaica Kincaid's Girl, and Louise Erdrich's The Red Convertible are all regular staples in anthologies of twentieth-century fiction. On the whole, this collection is a good representation of what is shaping up to be the key texts of the last 60 years.