Best of the West 2010 — James Thomas

Best of the West: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri, an annual anthology of exceptional short fiction rooted in the western United States, debuted in 1988 and continued publication until 1992. Recognizing that the West remains rewarding territory for literary explorations, James Thomas and D. Seth Horton revived the series in 2009. Best of the West 2010 brings together established and emerging writers who reinterpret this most vital of literary regions and create, as Kent Meyers puts it in his foreword, "gift s] the nation needs right now." Editors Horton and Thomas have chosen nineteen stories by writers including Sherman Alexie, Rick Bass, Ron Carlson, Julia Glass, William Kittredge, Kent Nelson, and Deb Olin Unferth. Their subjects vary from a Greek community in Wyoming dealing with a suicide, to a re-creation of Christ's crucifixion in New Mexico, to an unlikely friendship that peaks at a burial ground in Alaska. Best of the West 2010 is the latest indication that the West has become one of the most crucial settings for contemporary American fiction. Contributors Sherman Alexie Rick Bass John Blanchard Elea Carey Ron Carlson Natalie Diaz Darren Dillman Ben Ehrenreich Julia Glass Dina Guidubaldi Ben Kostival William Kittredge Paul Mihas Kent Nelson Daniel Orozco Kirstin Valdez Quade Aurelie Sheehan Justin St. Germain Deb Olin Unferth