THE ESSENTIAL YEARLY GUIDE TO THE NEWEST VOICES IN SHORT FICTION


“These dozen stories tend to the dark side, with rare moments of humor in a moody fictive landscape; they’re thus just right for their time . . . A promise of good things to come from this year’s roster of prizewinners.” —Kirkus Reviews


“A book of gems, each carrying its own clarity and cut, that teaches students of writing how limitless the short story form can be.” —Marie-Helene Bertino, author of 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas


PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 celebrates twelve outstanding stories by today’s most promising new fiction writers and the literary magazines that discovered them. The characters within these pages include a college dropout dressed up as Hercules at Disney World; a college graduate playing a prostitute in a ghost town in Montana; a father from Trinidad leading a double life on a temporary visa; and a housewife in Taipei perfectly performing her familial and marital duties while harboring secret desires.


This year’s selections were made by three award-winning writers, themselves innovators of the short story form: Jodi Angel, Lesley Nneka Arimah, and Alexandra Kleeman. Each work is accompanied by commentary from the editors who first published it, explaining what made the piece stand out from the submissions pile, and why they were moved to share it with readers.