The Best American Short Stories 1979, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Shannon Ravenel and by guest editor Joyce Carol Oates. 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 lauded Alice Munro's "Spelling" but found Flannery O'Connor's posthumous piece "not very good" and saw little interest in most of the pieces after the first few. Ultimately, the reviewer found the curation to be "A largely drab round-up, then, with the few, best stories utterly overshadowing the lesser efforts."
Short stories included Author Story SourceSaul Bellow"A Silver Dish"The New YorkerFlannery O'Connor"An Exile in the East"The South Carolina ReviewSéan Virgo"Home and Native Land"The Malahat ReviewKaatje Hurlbut"A Short Walk Into Afternoon"Southwest ReviewWilliam Styron"Shadrach"EsquireRosellen Brown"The Wedding Week"Boston University JournalIsaac Bashevis Singer"A Party in Miami Beach"PlayboyRolf Yngue"The Quail"Quarterly WestPeter LaSalle"Some Manhattan in New England"The Georgia ReviewLynne Sharon Schwartz"Plaisir d'Amour"The Ontario ReviewLyn Coffin"Falling Off the Scaffold"Michigan Quarterly ReviewAlice Munro"Spelling"Weekend MagazineRuth McLaughlin"Seasons"California QuarterlyRobley Wilson Jr."Living Alone"Fiction InternationalMary Hedin"The Middle Place"Southwest ReviewHerbert Wilner"The Quarterback Speaks to His God"EsquireAnnette Sanford"Trip in a Summer Dress"Prairie SchoonerPaul Bowles"The Eye"The Missouri ReviewJean Thompson"Paper Covers Rock"MademoiselleMaxine Kumin"The Missing Person"TriQuarterlyLouis D. Rubin Jr."Finisterre"The Southern ReviewSilvia Tennenbaum"A Lingering Death"The Massachusetts ReviewBernard Malamud"Home is the Hero"Atlantic MonthlyDonald Barthelme"The New Music"The New YorkerJayne Anne Phillips"Something That Happened"Gallimaufry
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