The Best American Short Stories 1983, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Shannon Ravenel and by guest editor Anne Tyler. The volume was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Background The series is considered one of the "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction""Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73. and has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature, curated by well-known guest editors since 1915."The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47. Specifically, Amy Hempel considered it and the O. Henry Award's prize anthology to compile "the best short fiction published in American and Canadian magazines during the preceding year."
In particular, the Willa Cather Review wrote that The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" for creative writing programs and literary magazines, specifically with considerable "influence" in college libraries, short fiction courses, and fiction workshops."'Long-Cellared Wine': 'Double Birthday,' Edward J. H. O'Brien, and the Best American Short Stories Series" by Timothy W. Bintrim and Scott Riner, Willa Cather Review, spring 2023, volume 64, issue 1, page 18.
Critical reception Kirkus Reviews called Anne Tyler's curation less impressive and idiosyncratic than previous guest editors but called the book "Still—one of the better post-Foley anthologies, with few risks and few inspired moments, but also with few pretensions or embarrassments."
Short stories included Author Story SourceBill Barich"Hard to Be Good"The New YorkerCarol Bly"The Dignity of Life"PloughsharesJames Bond"A Change of Season"EpochRaymond Carver"Where I'm Calling From"The New YorkerCarolyn Chute"“Ollie, Oh...”"PloughsharesLaurie Colwin"My Mistress"PlayboyJoseph Epstein"The Count and the Princess"The Hudson ReviewLouise Erdrich"Scales"The North American ReviewUrsula K. Le Guin"The Professor's Houses"The New YorkerUrsula K. Le Guin"Sur (A Summary Report of the Yelcho Expedition to the Antarctic, 1909-10)"The New YorkerBobbie Ann Mason"Graveyard Day"AscentWright Morris"Victrola"The New YorkerGuy Vanderhaeghe"Reunion"Saturday NightSharon Sheehe Stark"Best Quality Glass Company, New York"Prairie SchoonerRobert Taylor, Jr."Colorado"The Ohio ReviewMarian Thurm"Starlight"The New YorkerJohn Updike"Deaths of Distant Friends"The New YorkerJulie Schumacher"Reunion"California QuarterlyDiane Vreuls"Beebee "ShenandoahLarry Woiwode"Firstborn"The New Yorker
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