| Editor | Martha Foley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Best American Short Stories |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0395247709 |
| Preceded by | The Best American Short Stories 1975 |
| Followed by | The Best American Short Stories 1977 |
The Best American Short Stories 1976, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Martha Foley. [1] The volume was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [2]
The series is considered one of the "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction" [3] and has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature, curated by well-known guest editors since 1915. [4] Specifically, Amy Hempel considered it and the O. Henry Award's prize anthology to compile "the best short fiction published in American and Canadian magazines during the preceding year." [5]
In particular, the Willa Cather Review wrote that The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" for creative writing programs and literary magazines, specifically with considerable "influence" in college libraries, short fiction courses, and fiction workshops. [6]
| Author | Story | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alice Adams | "Roses, Rhododendron" | The New Yorker |
| M. Pabst Battin | "Terminal Procedure" | American Review |
| Mae Seidman Briskin | "The Boy Who Was Astrid's Mother" | Ascent |
| Nancy Chaikin | "Beautiful, Helpless Animals" | The Colorado Quarterly |
| John William Corrington | "The Actes and Monuments" | The Sewanee Review |
| H. E. Francis | "A Chronicle of Love" | Kansas Quarterly |
| John Hagge | "Pontius Pilate" | The Carleton Miscellany |
| Ward Just | "Dietz at War" | Virginia Quarterly Review |
| John McCluskey | "John Henry's Home" | The Iowa Review |
| Stephen Minot | "Grubbing for Roots" | North American Review |
| Kent Nelson | "Looking Into Nothing" | Transatlantic Review |
| Cynthia Ozick | "A Mercenary" | American Review |
| Reynolds Price | "Broad Day" | Shenandoah |
| Michael Rothschild | "Wondermonger" | Antaeus |
| Barry Targan | "Surviving Adverse Seasons" | Salmagundi |
| Peter Taylor | "The Hand of Emmagene" | Shenandoah |
| John Updike | "The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals" | The New Yorker |