1960 SMILING IN CALIFORNIA
A failed writer decides to end his life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. An unlikely heroine makes it her job to stop him.
1961 UNLITERATE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
A woman buys a first edition of The Joy of Cooking at a neighborhood yard sale and discovers an uncashed check inside.
1962 THROWN A CURVE BALL IN NEW YORK
As a boy listens to the very first Mets game alongside his stepfather, to whom he has become closely attached, he learns that his mother and stepfather are divorcing.
1963 ESTIVATING IN NEW JERSEY
An appliance salesman discovers an unexpected link between himself and two children who come in each afternoon to watch cartoons in the store in which he works.
1964 NEARLY INTERRED IN ALASKA
In the aftermath of the great Alaskan Good Friday earthquake, a frightened babysitter is punished for her selfish cowardice by the children in her care, who thoroughly despise her.
1965 MISTRYSTED IN NEW YORK
An Affair to Remember-like rendezvous between two World War II lovers at Grand Central Terminal is impeded by a citywide blackout.
1966 OUTRAGED IN IDAHO
An elementary school concert tribute to the popular musical The Sound of Music hits a major snag when the teacher planning the event wants to include a song from the original stage version that few are familiar with — one with a distasteful message.
1967 GOING THE VOLE IN NEVADA
A young man decides to put all the money he and his wife have on one life-changing roll of the roulette wheel.
1968 HIERATIC IN KANSAS
On the night of the Miss America pageant, a wife, husband, and their old friend, a priest, place the feminist movement and the general state of relations between men and women into a decidedly personal context.
1969 PARENTAL IN ARIZONA
Every summer a wealthy couple takes their kids on a joyful “travelcading” adventure through the American West, but this year is different; half-sisters of the father find a fly in the ointment — a fly that they put there themselves.
1970 SKIRTING THE ISSUE IN WEST VIRGINIA
A department store buyer has a personal reason for bemoaning the foisting of the unflattering “midi skirt” on the female American consumer.
1971 BIBLIOPHILIC IN ALABAMA
Members of a family of voracious readers on beach vacation work in concert to use their book smarts to save a drowning fellow vacationer.
1972 PRECIPITATE IN ILLINOIS
A woman at a mall witnesses a child abduction and knows that she is the only person who can save the little girl.
1973 VENGEFUL IN MARYLAND
While waiting in a long gas line, an ex-wife has the opportunity to exact revenge on her former husband.
1974 VICINAL IN TENNESSEE
Twin brothers spend the night of their eighteenth birthday with a neighbor: Elvis Presley.
1975 PHYSICALLY CANDID IN LOUSIANA
Two patio paviors must contend with a provocatively ecdysiastic lady of the house.
1976 THROTTLED IN ARKANSAS AND OKLAHOMA
Feuding sisters drive from Tennessee to Oklahoma to celebrate their mother’s birthday in separate cars, though fate refuses to keep them apart.
1977 RECTALLY REMUNERATIVE IN ILLINOIS
Big changes are discussed in the boardroom of a company that has made its reputation manufacturing products best not discussed in mixed company.
1978 TRI-TOASTED IN MISSOURI
Three thirty-something lawyers come together to raise a glass of Johnnie Walker to someone they all have in common and each dearly loved, though the feeling wasn’t reciprocal.
1979 GOING THROUGH THE MILL IN TEXAS
The story of a hapless, antisocial Dallas family told through documents filed in a Dallas County Justice Court.
1980 RENOVATIVE IN TEXAS
A boy remembers the summer he spent helping his step-grandfather renovate a house and learns that family isn’t always defined by blood.
1981 SELF-ANOINTED ABOVE, LET’S SAY, OKLAHOMA
A woman confronts a famous female televangelist on a plane, accusing her and her husband of keeping the woman’s mentally unstable daughter from getting proper medical treatment.
1982 REUNITED IN MISSOURI
Those gathered at a thirty-year high school reunion wonder if the one among them who has just recently been released from prison will make an appearance, and if he does, what will be the consequences?
1983 ETCHED IN STONE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
A man visits the Vietnam Memorial on his late friend’s birthday and finds his friend’s kid brother there, ready to topple the man’s heart-object from his pedestal.
1984 PATRIARCHAL IN CALIFORNIA
A father of three girls wants to try once more for a boy, and his “son obsession” puts a crimp in the family’s enjoyment of the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
1985 SMITTEN IN WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA
A young man sees a youthful picture of his wife’s grandmother and falls in love, inviting consequences that jeopardize his marriage.
1986 LOCKED OUT IN TEXAS
An old man is confronted by the reality of his Alzheimer’s as he stands naked before a YMCA locker, having forgotten his lock’s combination.
1987 MOTHERLY IN GEORGIA
A middle-aged preschool teacher has a very personal reason for wanting to teach only three-year-olds — a reason that finally comes out after thirty years.
1988 STOUTHEARTED IN FLORIDA
A teenage girl schemes to make it possible for her grandmother’s lesbian partner to see her grandmother when visitation by “non-family” members of ICU patients is disallowed.
1989 MELODIOUS IN OHIO
The four grown members of a teenage singing sister act accidentally learn about a fifth sister they never knew they had.
1990 GERONTOCONCUPISCENT IN VERMONT
An old man — the “guardian angel” of the love between a teenaged boy and girl he befriends — is tempted to exploit the fact that the couple has been sneaking into his house to have sex while he is out.
1991 FILICIDAL IN MISSISSIPPI
A father decides to do the unthinkable: end his own life and the lives of his two children by taking them automotively to the bottom of a lake. His eleven-year-old son is determined not to let him have his way.
1992 GRIEVING IN MINNESOTA
A widow cannot bring herself to remove her husband’s voice from the announcement on her home answering machine.
1993 SHELVED IN NEW MEXICO
A young woman must put her life on hold to care for her mother. She isn’t alone.
1994 CROONING AND SWOONING IN SOUTH DAKOTA
During a purported estate sale of Will Rogers and Dale Evans memorabilia, the sales coordinator learns the truth behind the sale…from a young man tied up in the basement.
1995 VARIOUSLY BEREFT IN MINNESOTA, CALIFORNIA, OKLAHOMA, AND MONTANA
The death of their brother necessitates various conversations among the four surviving siblings, during which they assess their tentative relationships with one another and the lunatic state of the country.
1996 COPROPHOBIC IN MISSISSIPPI
A couple looking for a new house find one that could be a good fit if only it weren’t for an insurmountable glitch in its presentation.