THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES® 2018
Edited by Roxane Gay
Foreword
I do not think it hyperbole to say that in 2018, the rapidly changing condition of American democracy has become an absorbing narrative of its own, one that features larger-than-life characters, nonstop conflict, breakneck pacing, and incredibly high stakes. On the day that I write this, April 16, 2018, the former head of the FBI is on a book tour, railing against what he calls our “morally unfit” president, the man who fired him a little less than a year ago. Five days ago, and without the consent of Congress, the president authorized an air strike of Syria after its president used chemical weapons against civilians near Damascus. Six days ago, two black men were arrested and detained for eight hours at a Philadelphia Starbucks after simply asking to use the restroom. Eight days ago, the FBI raided the office of the president’s longtime lawyer, seizing among many other things, evidence of hush money paid to a pornographic actress after an alleged affair with him. By the way, the FBI is also investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the role of Russian hackers and Facebook in the election, and most likely a laundry list of related alarming occurrences. On Valentine’s Day, a nineteen-year-old opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen people and injuring seventeen more.
Fiction writers are now faced with the significant challenge of producing work that will sustain a reader’s attention amid this larger narrative. Roxane Gay is just the right guest editor for this moment. With her keen eye for tension, voice, and structure, as well as her deep understanding of the forces at work in our culture, she chose stories that reflect and refract our time, stories that exhibit mastery of pacing, surprise, and rich characterization. Here are stories that hold their own in this day and age, no small feat, and they do so with devastating realism, honesty, humor, and courage.
Many of these short stories communicate deep longing. Maria Anderson describes the loneliness of a nineteen-year-old rural man whose father has disappeared. Cristina Henríquez writes of a Mexican woman who, after a grueling journey, crosses into the United States only to face a far darker journey: “Where has she gone and what has she become?” In Rivers Solomon’s story, “Whose Heart I Long to Stop with the Click of a Revolver,” a black woman meets her birth daughter, resuscitating memories of the girl’s white father, whose “words sound like truth to me, like something to be afraid of.” In Yoon Choi’s story, “The Art of Losing,” a husband and wife struggle with his excruciating memory loss: “Sometimes she felt that patience and kindness could be stretched so far in a marriage as to become their opposites.”
I first encountered this series when I was an undergraduate in college, and one of my favorite elements was the contributors’ notes at the back of the book. After reading a stellar story, I turned to the mini-essay that provided access to what seemed like secrets: confessions about the difficulties of writing, self-deprecating comments about the author’s obsessions; profound assessments of the themes of the stories. I admit that I still treasure the contributors’ notes. One by one, they fill my email inbox. After having fallen in love with a story, I savor these notes. Given the escalating conflicts in our country, I was unsurprised to see that this year, many authors described in their notes the nonfictional territory beneath their stories. Underlying Ann Glaviano’s hilarious story is the fact that wife camp is a verifiable thing. Jacob Guajardo writes, “Young, queer people of color become adept at hiding, but it’s hard to hide that you are in love.” The bloody assault of a black college student by local law enforcement prompted Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s “Control Negro.” Describing the seed of his story, Matthew Lyons explains, “I’ve always been fascinated with the phenomenon of American male rage.” Alicia Elliott describes the vast dangers of Canadian colonialism to Indigenous people and culture. Canadian stories and writers have always been a part of this series; all stories submitted to me and written in English and published in North America are considered.
The stories in this book offer readers passageway inside contemporary and age-old questions of what it means to live together in a society, as well as what it takes to define and sustain oneself in difficult times. To read great fiction well is to live and breathe inside of it. A couple of years ago came scientific proof that reading literary fiction stimulates “theory of mind,” or emotional intelligence and empathy. Fiction offers truths and humane understanding not found elsewhere. When we ally with fictional characters, we enlarge our understanding of the world, something particularly crucial these days.
In last year’s foreword, I wrote about my reaction to the 2016 presidential election. I received a few letters requesting that I keep my politics out of my job. I read as any critic does, as a human being with a particular set of experiences. I read as the best reader that I can be, as someone who seeks out engrossing and important stories; beautiful, evocative, funny, or striking language; a sense that I am transported and unable to return to my life at least until I’ve finished reading, no matter the author, no matter the setting, nor the time period, nor the cultural or gender or sexual preferences expressed by the characters. As George Orwell wrote in a 1946 essay, “The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”
I am grateful to share these twenty stories that engage, impress, and transport.
The stories chosen for this anthology were originally published between January 2017 and January 2018. The qualifications for selection are (1) original publication in nationally distributed American or Canadian periodicals; (2) publication in English by writers who have made the United States or Canada their home; (3) original publication as short stories (excerpts of novels are not considered). A list of magazines consulted for this volume appears at the back of the book. Editors who wish their short fiction to be considered for next year’s edition should send their publications or hard copies of online publications to Heidi Pitlor, c/o The Best American Short Stories, 125 High Street, Boston, MA 02110 or files to thebestamericanshortstories@gmail.com as attachments.
Introduction
We are in the midst of a significant cultural moment. Of course, there has rarely been a time when we haven’t been in the midst of a significant cultural moment. Donald Trump is president, and he is implementing his agenda with relative ease. He is subverting what we once knew as the presidency for his own personal gain. In the late spring of 2018 his wife, Melania Trump, wasn’t seen publicly for weeks, sparking all kinds of speculation about where she was and what had happened to her, because with a man like Trump it was plausible that harm had come to her or that she had simply left him. His adult children are feasting at a bountiful table funded by American taxpayers while his oldest daughter plays at diplomat and part-time First Lady. The cronies the president has installed in office are grifting the American people and they aren’t bothering to hide it, because they know that the Republican Congress is so enamored with the power they wield that they see no need to check and balance. Tensions are high in this country. Tensions are high nearly everywhere in the world. The news offers a constant barrage of terrible, overwhelming truths about the way things are. On social media, people parse all this information and become instant experts on everything from global warming to immigration law. The world feels like it is coming apart. For many vulnerable people, the world is coming apart.