The Best American Short Stories 2020

The Best American Series

De: Curtis Sittenfeld - editor, Heidi Pitlor - editor

Narrado por: Curtis Sittenfeld, Soneela Nankani, Peter Ganim, Robert Petkoff, Kevin T. Collins, Therese Plummer, Robin Miles, Gabra Zackman, Emily Woo Zeller, Tracey Leigh, Priya Ayyar, Rebecca Lowman, Ilyana Kadushin, Suzanne Toren, Cindy Kay

“To read their stories felt to me the way I suspect other people feel hearing jazz for the first time,” recalls Curtis Sittenfeld of her initial encounter with the Best American Short Stories series. “They were windows into emotions I had and hadn’t had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships.” Decades later, Sittenfeld was met by the same feeling selecting the stories for this year’s edition. The result is a striking and nuanced collection, bringing to life awkward college students, disgraced public figures, raunchy grandparents, and mystical godmothers. To listen to these stories is to experience the transporting joys of discovery and affirmation and to realize that story writing in America continues to flourish.

The Best American Short Stories 2020 includes:

• T. C. Boyle
• Emma Cline
• Mary Gaitskill
• Andrea Lee
• Elizabeth Mc Cracken
• Alejandro Puyana William Pei Shih
• Kevin Wilson
• And others

Full narrators list: Robert Petkoff, Soneela Nankani, Peter Ganim, Curtis Sittenfeld, Kevin T. Collins, Therese Plummer, Robin Miles, Gabra Zackman, Emily Woo Zeller, Tracey Leigh, Priya Ayyar, Rebecca Lowman, Ilyana Kadushin, Suzanne Toren, Cindy Kay, Ramon De Ocampo, Michael Crouch

©2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Another Great Year of Shorts

I have been reading this series since the 1980s and look forward to the new volume each year.
Although there are only a few GREAT stories in each volume, I have found this series has the best curation of any of the annual short story collections I read. Each volume has 20 of the best American short stories of the year. Audible now has all the volumes since 2019.

RANT: This is a curated collection of American shorts. It is not really a “Best” collection because diversity and inclusion appear to be an important editorial factor. Inclusive curated collections are great but are a different thing from a true “best of” collection.

This year I really liked Howl Palace, The Apartment, and This is Pleasure. There are six other very good stories along with a dozen or so ranging from OK to Good.

The narration varies but overall good to excellent.

A solid and diverse collection

I enjoyed Curtis Sittenfeld Introduction where she explains why she loved each of the 2p stories. I read it after I had finished reading the stories and saw why she included stories I did not particularly like myself. For me, the best stories are Godmother Tea, Something Street, Sibling Rivalry, Kennedy, Octopus Vii, Howl Palace, A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed.

This is Pleasure

Really nice selection, though a few required my brain, hungry for relaxation, to work more than I appreciated. I particularly enjoyed and
was provoked by Mary Gaiteskills “This is Pleasure “.

Avid reader

Way too much about sex. A few of the stores were really good but there must be more to write about than gratuitous sex.

Horrible. Both me and my wife tried

Need to get a new editor and speaker. I’m sorry to feel this way about it, but if I could ask for my money back I would. This is actually the most I’ve ever been disappointed in audible even though it’s not their fault.