The Best Short Stories 2023

The prestigious annual story anthology includes prize-winning stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, David Ryan, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Lisa Taddeo, Ling Ma, Catherine Lacey, and Cristina Rivera Garza.

[A] standout collection . . . . Dazzling performances from some of today s most exciting writers. . . . This is one of the best fiction anthologies in years. Publishers Weekly starred review

Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Lauren Groff has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices and including several stories in translation. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Groff, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction. AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL.

THE WINNING STORIES:
Office Hours, by Ling Ma
Man Mountain, by Catherine Lacey
Me, Rory and Aurora, by Jonas Eika,
translated from the Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
The Complete, by Gabriel Smith
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," by Jamil Jan Kochai
Wisconsin, by Lisa Taddeo
Ira & the Whale, by Rachel B. Glaser
The Commander s Teeth, by Naomi Shuyama-Gómez
The Mad People of Paris, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón,
translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead
Snake & Submarine, by Shelby Kinney-Lang
The Mother, by Jacob M hango
The Hollow, by Pemi Aguda
Dream Man, by Cristina Rivera Garza,
translated from the Spanish by Francisca González-Arias
The Locksmith, by Grey Wolfe LaJoie
After Hours at the Acacia Park Pool, by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Happy Is a Doing Word, by Arinze Ifeakandu
Elision, by David Ryan
Xífù, by K-Ming Chang
Temporary Housing, by Kathleen Alcott
The Blackhills, by Eamon McGuinness