Since the series’ inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. The Best American Short Stories of the Century, published in 2000, brings together stories that have endured the test of time: masterworks by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and scores of others. In this SDG we will read all these stories and discuss what makes them the best, how each explored aspects of the human condition, and whether each story continues to speak to us in the first 20 years of the 21st Century. Book: The Best American Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison (2000) Approx. $13.
