EditorEarlier this month, the editor of Lowestoft Chronicle nominated a selection of our most memorable pieces for inclusion in several Best American Series anthologies. Each volume typically features a mere twenty or so works, handpicked from the hundreds—occasionally thousands—submitted every year. Fortunately, the days of losing an afternoon to the post office (queues snaking into the parking lot and sometimes your soul) are mostly gone, with online submissions now the norm. [Well, except for The Best American Essays, which has, somewhat mysteriously, reverted to snail mail this year—perhaps as an act of charity for the USPS.
These are the pieces carrying our banner this year:
Best American Short Stories Nominations
— “Interventions,” by ROBERT L. PENICK
— “Really Italian,” by ANGELA TOWNSEND
— “Salem,” by JEFF BURT
— “Root-bound,” by SHARON FRAME GAY
— “The Ghost in the Tavern,” by MARK JACOBS
Best American Food and Travel Writing Nominees
— “Over the Counter, Under the Toilet Seat,” by ITTO OUTINI
— “Rules of the Road,” by TRAIS PEARSON
— “Stella, 1982, Córdoba,” by JONATHAN HALL
— “Gringo Mojado,” by B. CRAWFORD
About The Best American Series
First published in 1915, the Best American Series appears annually from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. It’s widely recognized as the gold standard for anthologies of American short fiction and nonfiction. Every year, the series editors sift through an overwhelming stream of print and online publications to select the standouts for each edition.
