Product Description

The most honored literary series in America begins its fourth decade.

With a brilliant collection of stories, essays, memoirs, and poems selected from hundreds of the best small presses, the annual Pushcart Prize sets the standard of excellence for literary anthologies. Each year it invites nominations from a wide array of little magazines and small presses and presents over sixty of the best; and each year its annual volume is hailed as a touchstone of literary discovery.

For its thirty-first anniversary celebration, the Pushcart Prize surpasses its own reputation with an astonishing diversity of writers—some renowned and many others destined for fame.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #490490 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 550 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A fictional stranger asks a woman to carry a package onto an airplane; a real '70s housewife sublimates her ambitions through the preparation of extravagant French cuisine; a poet writes of "Hearing News from the Temple Mount in Salt Lake City": this year's gathering of small-press fiction, essays and poetry from venerable stocktaker Henderson is uneven, if sporadically edgy. Standouts center on identity and include Dina Ben-Lev's memory of anti-Semitic pig farmers in Quebec; Mary Karr's confession of her unlikely conversion to Catholicism; and Katherine Karlin's story about a lesbian oil worker trying to be one of the boys in a Delaware Valley refinery. Also noteworthy are Benjamin Percy's short story about smalltown boys who join the reserves and end up in Iraq—with their fathers; Karen E. Bender's tale about a routine TriBeCa sublet that goes awry after September 11; Jonathan Carroll's story about how a lawyer's obsession with scaffolding leads to a Kafkaesque metamorphosis; and Philip Levine's tribute to the late poet Thom Gunn, a narrative dominated by the attention-grabbing John Berryman. Some pieces are unsatisfying (such as David James Duncan's rant on fundamentalism), but this sampler whets the appetite for nonmainstream publications and perspectives. (Dec.)
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From Booklist
This venerable yet ever youthful annual gathering of the best small-press short stories, essays, and poetry enters its fourth decade with pomp and circumstance as the man behind the pushcart, Bill Henderson, is recognized for his inspired and unwavering support of literature with awards from the National Book Critics Circle and from Poets & Writers. And once again, Pushcart presents resounding testimony to the vibrancy of American letters. With two outstanding poets, Eleanor Wilner and Linda Bierds, serving as guest editors, the poetry selections are varied and provocative, including stinging poems by Sharmila Voorakkara, Kevin Prufer, and Maxine Kumin, to name but a few standouts. This finger-on-the-pulse compendium also showcases sharp, illuminating, and even important essays, including Wendell Berry's "The Way of Ignorance" and David James Duncan's "What Fundamentalists Need for Their Salvation." And the fiction is potent and especially smart and incisive, with stories by the likes of Kate Braverman, Richard Burgin, Jonathan Carroll, Elizabeth McCracken, and Kevin Moffett. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Bill Henderson, founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize, received the 2006 National Book Critics Circle's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers/Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.