Product Description

"Intelligence, compassion and artistry are alive and well in America."—Donna Seaman, Booklist

The winner of honors from the National Book Critics Circle, Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers, and others, and acclaimed by readers and reviewers nationwide, the Pushcart Prize series continues to be a testament to the flourishing of American fiction, essays, memoirs, and poetry in our small presses.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94097 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 596 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781888889512
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The 33rd Pushcart anthology demonstrates that independent presses still publish much of the world's most engaging literature. McSweeney's nominated Wells Tower's standout story, Retreat, in which aging property developer Matthew Lattimore seeks assistance from (while simultaneously antagonizing) his brother, his carpenter and the very wilds of Maine. Man and Wife, Katie Chase's piece from the Missouri Review, tells the story of Mary Ellen, whose parents and neighbors marry off nine-year-old girls in a world eerily similar to our own. In her AGNI essay, Bendithion, Harrison Solow considers the enigmatic otherworldliness of the world-class tenor and Welsh postmaster, Timothy Evans. And Sylvester Stallone shows aspiring novelist Jeremy Collins something about the artist's life in the funny and moving Georgia Review essay, Shadow Boxing. Poems by emerging and established poets such as Ciaran Barry, Bruce Smith and Derek Walcott pepper this must-have book for contemporary literature lovers. (Dec.)
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From Booklist
Despite claims that reading is in decline, there is certainly no downswing in the need to write. Literature remains vital, if underappreciated, as the range of expression, the spectrum of ideas, and the depth of feeling in contemporary writing grows and blossoms. Open the latest Pushcart gathering of the best of the small presses, and enter a cosmos of candor, humor, conviction, and lyricism. The more than 60 striking, diverse works showcased here include bracing poems by Kurt Brown, Derek Walcott, and Elinor Wylie; essays of earth, faith, and love by Krista Bremer, Brenda Miller, and Christian Wiman; and fresh and compelling fiction by Beena Kamlani, Jack Livings, and Elizabeth Tallent. Thoughtfully dedicated to the late Raymond J. Smith, editor and publisher of the Ontario Review and Ontario Review Press, who, in the words of Pushcart editor Henderson, gave “countless authors hope,” this generous, glimmering, and hopeful Pushcart Prize volume affirms the love readers and writers alike share for the art and spirit of strong writing, and the awareness and communion literature engenders. --Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

Invaluable
In a literary culture as fragmented as ours, these anthologies are about the best way to get a feel for what we're all up to. I love 'em, the Pushcarts, the O'Henry's, the Best American Stories, Mysteries, Essays, Sports Writing, so on. You don't have to love every story in these to profit from the reading. Occasionally I'm required to make long commutes to Manhattan for weeks at a time, and there's no better reading than these anthologies in general and the Pushcarts in particular.

Of this edition, I'd make special mention of Wells Tower, Lydia Peelee and Beena Kamlani as especial fun to discover. And in general sense, using this book as a thermometer of what's going on in literature, I'd comment that we seem to be having problems with endings. There were really very few stories with completely satisfying endings. Rather than a negative, I take this as informative and interesting. You can analyze it as a technical problem, a social one, or a spiritual one, but it's definitely there. Personally, I suspect a lot of these fine writers have forgot (or decided to ignore) the fundamentals of storytelling. They -- and we -- would gain from a little merging of the genre folk with the literary ones.

Not up to Snuff
Just as Jonathan, a previous reviewer, I question most of Bill Henderson's choices for the 2009 Pushcart edition. I gave the book a chance, I buy it every year along with the Best American Short Stories, and the O.Henry Prize Stories,purchases to which I have now have added the Best New American Voices,2009 and 2010.

I gave Bill Henderson's huge compendium a chance to entertain me on a recent writing trip to Prague,by deciding to start every story and read it for at least 2 or 3 pages. Only three of them were interesting or memorable to me. As an avid reader and a student writer I was not "hooked" by most of these selections.

While it is true that taste is personal and unique, and I am probably not expressing a majority opinion, most of these stories will not survive to be read again and again, as many of our favourites have.

Is this really the best writing of the year?
This is a nice collection, but it definitely reveals the decline of taste prevalent in our society. It also reveals the common prejudices among publishers etc. There were a handful of pieces I genuinely loved, but I was surprised by how many I actually loathed. I consider myself fairly eclectic, but the amount of sensationalist smut present in this collection is somewhat appalling despite my defensive cynicism.