The Best American Series is a series of anthologies that is published annually by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Each title within the series covers a specific genre such as short stories or mysteries. The works for each year's edition are selected from those published elsewhere during the previous year.
The Best American Short Stories has been published since 1915, making it the oldest continuous series of its type. Starting in 1986, additional titles were added for essays, sports writing, nature writing and more, at which time the broader The Best American Series moniker was introduced.
The series was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt prior to HarperCollins acquiring HMH Books & Media in 2021.
Each title has a continuing series editor who makes an initial selection of notable works from which a guest editor chooses those for inclusion in that year's edition. Guest editors are established authors in the title's associated genre. A new guest editor is chosen each year.
A work is eligible for the series if it is published in English (or published in another language but translated into English by the author) in the United States, Canada, Mexico, or Greenland; if it first appeared, or was significantly revised, during the previous year; and if the author comes from or chiefly lives in North America. Internet publications are eligible if their audience includes North American readers. Works that do not make the final cut are often given honorable mention in an alphabetical list at the back of the book.
Many editions have a mix of works from well-established authors—examples include Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon, and Lorrie Moore—along with up-and-coming writers who have achieved moderate success, such as Benзкjamin Percy, Kyle Minor, and Ander Monson. Introductions to each edition are written by the series editor, guest editor, and sometimes other celebrities, such as actor Viggo Mortensen for The Best American Nonrequired Reading and UK cook Jamie Oliver for The Best American Recipes.
The editions are published in September or October and feature works that were published during the prior year: for example, The Best American Essays 2000 contains works published in 1999.
The Best American Series includes the following titles:
The following titles were formerly included in the series:
Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective, who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, EQMM is named after the fictitious author Ellery Queen, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective named Ellery Queen. From 1993, EQMM changed its cover title to be Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, but the table of contents still retains the full name.
Jack Dann is an American writer best known for his science fiction, as well as an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, the majority being as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He has published nine novels, numerous shorter works of fiction, essays, and poetry, and his books have been translated into thirteen languages. His work, which includes fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, and historical and alternative history genres, has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, J. G. Ballard, and Philip K. Dick.
The Best American Short Stories is a yearly anthology that's part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature. Along with the O. Henry Awards, Best American Short Stories is one of the two "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction."
Otto Penzler is an American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
The Alaska Quarterly Review is a biannual literary journal founded in 1980 by Ronald Spatz and James Liszka at the University of Alaska Anchorage and continued unaffiliated in 2020. Ronald Spatz serves as editor-in-chief. It was deemed by the Washington Post "Book World" to be "one of the nation's best literary magazines." A number of works originally published in The Alaska Quarterly Review have been subsequently selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best Creative Nonfiction, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Beacon Best, and The Pushcart Prize: The Best of the Small Presses.
Prairie Schooner is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first published in 1926. It was founded by Lowry Wimberly and a small group of his students, who together formed the Wordsmith Chapter of Sigma Upsilon.
Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction is an anthology of original science fiction stories edited by Robert Silverberg, first published in hardcover by Avon Eos in May 1999, with a book club edition following from Avon and the Science Fiction Book Club in July of the same year. Paperback and trade paperback editions were issued by Eos/HarperCollins in May 2000 and December 2005, respectively, and an ebook edition by HarperCollins e-books in March 2009. The first British edition was issued in hardcover and trade paperback by Orbit/Little Brown in June 1999, with a paperback edition following from Orbit in July 2000.
Paul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specializes in science fiction and fantasy.
Mid-American Review (MAR) is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, MAR is a publication of the Department of English and the College of Arts & Sciences at Bowling Green State University. It is produced by faculty, students, and alumni of Bowling Green's creative writing program.
K. L. Cook is an American writer from Texas. He is the author of Last Call (2004), a collection of linked stories spanning thirty-two years in the life of a West Texas family, the novel, The Girl From Charnelle (2006), and the short story collection, Love Songs for the Quarantined (2011). His most recent books are a collection of short stories, Marrying Kind (2019), a collection of poetry, Lost Soliloquies (2019), and The Art of Disobedience: Essays on Form, Fiction, and Influence (2020). He co-directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and teaches in the low-residency MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University.
AGNI is an American literary magazine founded in 1972 that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and weekly online from its home at Boston University. Its coeditors are Sven Birkerts and William Pierce.
Crazyhorse is an American magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, and essays. Since 1960, Crazyhorse has published many of the finest voices in literature, including John Updike, Raymond Carver, Jorie Graham, John Ashbery, Robert Bly, Ha Jin, Lee K. Abbott, Philip F. Deaver, Stacie Cassarino, W. P. Kinsella, Richard Wilbur, James Wright, Carolyn Forché, Charles Simic, Charles Wright, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell, James Tate, and Franz Wright.
Creative Nonfiction is a literary magazine based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The journal was founded by Lee Gutkind in 1993, making it the first literary magazine to publish, exclusively and on a regular basis, high quality nonfiction prose. In Spring 2010, Creative Nonfiction evolved from journal to magazine format with the addition of new sections such as writer profiles and essays on the craft of writing, as well as updates on developments in the literary nonfiction scene. As of 2023, the magazine has ceased publication, with no information provided about when or if they will resume publication.
Narrative Magazine is a non-profit digital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art founded in 2003 by Tom Jenks and Carol Edgarian. Narrative publishes weekly and provides educational resources to teachers and students; subscription and access to its content is free.
The Best American Mystery and Suspense is an annual anthology of North American mystery and thriller stories. Prior to 2021, its title was The Best American Mystery Stories and it was published by Houghton Mifflin through the year 2017. It has been part of The Best American Series since 1997, it is published by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Mystery Scene is an American magazine, first published in 1985, that covers the crime and mystery genre with a mix of articles, profiles, criticism, and extensive reviews of books, films, TV, short stories, audiobooks, and reference works.
Castle Freeman Jr. an American author. He is the award-winning author of the acclaimed novel Go with Me, adapted into the film Blackway (2015) starring Anthony Hopkins and Julia Stiles. For 30 years he was a contributor to The Old Farmer's Almanac and is the author of four other novels, two short-story collections, as well as a major history of a Vermont township.
Scouting for the Reaper (2014) is the first collection of short stories by American author Jacob M. Appel. It won the Hudson Prize in 2012 and was published by Black Lawrence Press. Writing Today named it the best debut collection of 2014.
The Adroit Journal is an American literary magazine founded in November 2010. Published five times per year by founding editor Peter LaBerge, The Adroit Journal is currently based in Philadelphia. The journal was produced with the support of the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House from 2013 to 2017 and was based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City from 2017-2019 and 2020-2023 respectively.