The Best American Short Stories 2016
Readers rate it 3.9 (6 on Hardcover)
339 pages · Released Oct 4, 2016 · HarperCollins
Content report card
The Best American Short Stories 2016 parent’s guide: what’s inside
LGBTQ+ themes
What it offers
A note for parents
This is a curated anthology of adult literary short stories by accomplished writers, intended for college and adult audiences. While the collection showcases diverse perspectives and neighborhoods, individual stories contain mature themes appropriate for high school and older readers. The content varies significantly across stories—some deal with difficult subjects like murder, exploitation, and academic dysfunction—so parent discretion is warranted depending on which stories a young reader encounters.
Analyzed by AI · 1 month ago
Read it with your kids?
Rate it and suggest an age to help other parents.
From the publisher
"This terrific and surprising collection of tales by a diverse group of writers lives up to Diaz's 'rah-rah' (his term) rallying cry for the form." — USA Today "If the novel is our culture's favored literary form, upon which we heap all our desiccated literary laurels, if the novel is, say our Jaime Lannister, then the... "This terrific and surprising collection of tales by a diverse group of writers lives up to Diaz's 'rah-rah' (his term) rallying cry for the form." — USA Today "If the novel is our culture's favored literary form, upon which we heap all our desiccated literary laurels, if the novel is, say our Jaime Lannister, then the short story is our very own Tyrion: the disdained little brother, the perennial underdog. But what an underdog," writes Junot Diaz in his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2016. From a Nigerian boy's friendship with his family's former houseboy to a sweatshop girl's experience as a sister wife, from love and murder on the frontier to a meltdown in the academe, these stories, for Diaz, have the economy and power to "break hearts bones vanities and cages." "The literary 'Oscars' features twenty outstanding examples of the best of the best in American short stories." — Shelf Awareness "Its strongest installment yet . . . Díaz's compilation is the most diverse and inclusive entry to date of any of the major annual story collections—reason enough to get it in the classroom, and a good vehicle for readers to see what's up in neighborhoods they may not be familiar with. Essential for every student of the short story form." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "This year's collection brings together fine stories by famous fiction writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Karen Russell . . . [while] a great deal of the magic is generated by the appearance of less familiar names." — The National Book Review
Shelved under
- Fiction
- American fiction
- General
- Short stories
- Canadian Short stories
- American Short stories
- Canadian fiction
- Short stories, american
- American fiction (collections), 21st century
- Anthologies (multiple authors)
- Essays
- English & college success -> english -> fiction
Share this guide
ISBN 9780544867093 · HarperCollins