The Best American Short Stories 1976, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Martha Foley. 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.
Short stories included Author Story SourceAlice Adams"Roses, Rhododendron"The New YorkerM. Pabst Battin"Terminal Procedure"American ReviewMae Seidman Briskin"The Boy Who Was Astrid's Mother"AscentNancy Chaikin"Beautiful, Helpless Animals"The Colorado QuarterlyJohn William Corrington"The Actes and Monuments"The Sewanee ReviewH. E. Francis"A Chronicle of Love"Kansas QuarterlyJohn Hagge"Pontius Pilate"The Carleton MiscellanyWard Just"Dietz at War"Virginia Quarterly ReviewJohn McCluskey"John Henry's Home"The Iowa ReviewStephen Minot"Grubbing for Roots"North American ReviewKent Nelson"Looking Into Nothing"Transatlantic ReviewCynthia Ozick"A Mercenary"American ReviewReynolds Price"Broad Day"ShenandoahMichael Rothschild"Wondermonger"AntaeusBarry Targan"Surviving Adverse Seasons"SalmagundiPeter Taylor"The Hand of Emmagene"ShenandoahJohn Updike"The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals"The New Yorker
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