Featuring the conclusions to Issue 57's cliffhanger stories by Booker Prize nominee Oyinkan Braithwaite, Brian Evanson, and Mona Awad.

    Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. The guest editor then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected – and most popular – of its kind.This special e-book sampler contains eleven selections from the 2011 editions.From The Best American Short Stories® edited by Geraldine Brooks:Housewifely Arts by Megan Mayhew BergmanPhantoms by Steven MillhauserFrom The Best American Essays® edited by Edwidge Danticat:Chapels by Pico IyerThere Are Things Awry Here by Lia PurpuraFrom The Best American Mystery Stories edited by Harlan Coben:A Crime of Opportunity by Ernest J. FinneyFrom The Best American Science and Nature Writing edited by Mary Roach:The Killer in the Pool by Tim Zimmermann, Jr.The Whole Fracking Enchilada by Sandra SteingraberFrom The Best American Sports Writing edited by Jane Leavy:The Surfing Savant by Paul SolotaroffNew Mike, Old Christine by Nancy HassFrom The Best American Travel Writing edited by Sloane Crosley: My Year at Sea by Christopher BuckleyMiami Party Boom by Emily Witt

    Heinlein• Defending the Third Industrial Revolution • by G. Harry Stine• Interior artwork by David Egge• Old Woman by the Road • (1978) • by Gregory Benford• Encased in the Amber of Eternity • poem by Robert Frazier• Moon Rocks • (1973) • by Tom Purdom• Lasers, Grasers, and Marxists • (1976) • by Jerry Pournelle• Fixed Price War • (1978) • by Charles Sheffield• Marius • (1957) • by Poul Anderson• Weapons in Future Warfare • essay by Roger A. Beaumont and R. Snowden Ficks• Scenario for the Fall of Night • by Roger A. Beaumont• The Spell of War • [Lord Darcy] • (1978) • by Randall Garrett• Military Vehicles: Into the Third Millennium • essay by Dean Ing• Interior artwork by Stephen Fabian• The Man in the Gray Weapons Suit • by Paul J. Nahin• Just an Old-Fashioned War Story • (1977) • by Michael G. Coney• The Private War of Private Jacob • (1974) • by Joe Haldeman• One Foot in the Grave: Medicine in Future Warfare • essay by Alan E. Nourse• Shark • (1973) • by Edward Bryant• Training • by David Langford• Final Muster • (1961) • by Rick Rubin

    S. Pritchett, one of our greatest short story writers, has chosen forty-one stories from nine countries written in the English language for this volume, producing a collection that successfully displays the wealth and variety of an art that spans some 200 years.The United States, Great Britain, and Ireland have fine traditions of short story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the twentieth century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. Other contributions in the book come from such masters as James Joyce, Mark Twain, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Frank O'Connor, H. E. Bates, William Trevor, and Liam O'Flaherty. Now, the collection of short story masters extends to Canadian, Indian, New Zealander, and Australian writers, who show in the works included here the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.

    “I am looking for the artful way any given story is conveyed,” writes Roxane Gay in her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2018, “but I also love when a story has a powerful message, when a story teaches me something about the world.” The artful, profound, and sometimes funny stories Gay chose for the collection transport readers from a fraught family reunion to an immigration detention center, from a psychiatric hospital to a coed class sleepover in a natural history museum. We meet a rebellious summer camper, a Twitter addict, and an Appalachian preacher—all characters and circumstances that show us what we “need to know about the lives of others.”

    Here's what you'll find in this issue:"Jenny's House" is a great place to play, but an unexpected playmate makes for a dark session of show-and-tell.Three kids seek to steal from a traveling carnival and get more than they bargained for in "A Lullaby for Caliban"In "The Last Nephew", Nephew yearns to be free of Uncle's depredations, but when Uncle leaves his pocket watch behind one night, it gives him the key to his escape.Crossing "The Cornfield" is harrowing on the best of winter nights, but this night, Jack turns to see eyes in the darkness, and knows that something is following him...In "The Ginger Men", mother is baking a special ingredient into a treat for father, an ingredient that gives her pie dough a life of its own. Featuring stories by Ada Hoffmann, Julie Jansen, Mark Onspaugh, Mike Trier, and Elizabeth Twist.Be sure to check out the other volumes in this ongoing anthology series, and watch for new volumes coming soon!

    What is the star of her favorite TV show doing in their tiny Pacific Coast town? Since Wynn is the only medical help for miles around, she has to stitch up his face—and also maybe his heart—all while protecting her own heart from the worldly charmer.Love on a Mission in Millcreek - JoAnn DurginAngelia Ford wonders if she’ll ever live down her unfortunate outburst at the end of the Millcreek Elementary Christmas program. Sixteen years later, she’s home to care for her grandfather and prays the town’s citizens have finally forgiven her youthful indiscretion.Millcreek’s newest resident, Nicholas Sanders, recognizes the beautiful blonde server at the local diner, but it’s clear Angel doesn’t remember him. What better time than the festive holiday season for Nick to reintroduce himself to the girl he’s never forgotten?The Bells of New Cheltenham - Chautona HavigWhen Justine Driscoll decides to enter a short story contest using a Christmas carol as the inspiration, she discovers love in the carols she investigates, in the story an ex-Army guy tells, and in the little tourist town of New Cheltenham.A Christmas Duet - Annette M. IrbyA breakup steals a cellist’s inspiration. How will she create new compositions for her ensemble’s next album? Perhaps the church’s handsome music director could help. Join Kate Fleming and Zach Tillmon as Christmas music brings them together on Whidbey Island, Washington.A Night Divine - Dawn KinzerOne chilly December night, a tragedy connects successful model Camryn Tate and outreach minister Trace Gardner. As they share a common mission serving the homeless on the streets of Seattle, they provide more than food—they offer hope. But as Christmas Eve approaches, secrets have the potential to break Camryn’s heart.To Hear the Angels Sing - Lesley Ann McDanielBeing guardian of her niece isn’t as easy as Devlin Welsh might hope. When her niece is invited to be in a church show, the free childcare is hard to pass up. But when Devlin admits to knowing how to sew, she’s enlisted as costume designer. How will she find the time?One of Jonah Ryan’s favorite parts of his job as worship leader is working on the kids’ Christmas musical. There’s something about the woman who’s volunteering to design costumes this year that gets him thinking. Could there be more to life than music?Prairie Rose - Sylvia StewartFor many years, Rose Morris has lived alone with her dog, Rusty. Mitch Foster, a handsome, un-married neighbor, brings her a bright red geranium, and insists on helping with chores. But who should drive into Rose’s farmyard? The scoundrel husband who had deserted her and her teenaged son years before. Later, a pre-teen runaway, found in her barn, adds his troubles to her own, so Rose decides to re-capture the peace and serenity of Christmas.

    Those two little words can mean so much. But how will things end...and will it hurt? That’s what we really want to know. Delve into the darkness and join us at the end of the world. From a blighted sky to an invasion from beyond, from untethered time to one person driven beyond the edge of sanity, from a child’s game to an unseen apocalypse...it’s all imagined here, and imagined darkly. Inside The Ways We End is a combination of new stories and previously published anthology tales, now re-imagined without word limits, including Cottage of Hunger, The Mergens, The Mountains of Five, The Bridge, Rock or Shell, and A Mother So Beautiful.

    As in life, there are no happy endings, and no matter how high one flies, theres always gravity.

    A new outbreak is about to begin. The world's most deadly disease is loose, and anyone who catches it is doomed. Symptoms include coughing, sneezing, abdominal pain, and rotting of the flesh. There is no cure. Infection is 100% fatal. Stay calm. Please do not panic. The situation is under control. It is under control. The Peeling & Other Terrifying Tales is a collection of novellas and short stories from bestselling horror author Iain Rob Wright. It begins with the 80-page novella THE PEELING, and also includes several short stories, most of which have never been published before. Full table of contents below: 1. THE PEELING 2018 (novella) 2. THE PEELING OF SAMUEL LLOYD COLLINS 3. THE PEELING OMNIBUS (5 previously released novellas set in The Peeling universe) 4. EHLLF (short story) 5. VLOG LIFE (short story) 6. HEIRLOOMS (short story) 7. THE EAGLE & THE WOLF (short story) 8. CHICKEN BOY (short story) 9. THE WITNESS (short story) 10. THE BOB SAGA (1 previously released short story & 1 previously unpublished) "Iain Rob Wright scares the Hell out of me!" - J. A. Konrath "Iain Rob Wright is sick and twisted." - David Moody "A master of the genre." - Matt Shaw

     THE STICK WOMAN - Priscilla has been held hostage, physically mutilated, and fed feces for years. And her situation is about to get much, much worse. SHIT-HOUSE - How bad is the world around you? How much worse could it get? How far would you go to fix it? THE USHERS - They are always there - somewhere in the background and just out of sight. A force of violence and lust. They are the ushers... THE SEA-SLOP THING - June needs a new job - and she's found it, along with something from the deepest depths of the sea.

    The anthology contains 45 illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, over 20 stories by the likes of Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Gary A. Braunbeck, Mort Castle, Josh Malerman, Scott Edelman, Richard Thomas, Richard Chizmar and Gene O’Neill, and with 20 intertwined poems by the likes of Elizabeth Massie, Marge Simon, Bruce Boston, Erik T. Johnson, Stephanie M. Wytovich, and also includes an introduction by the extraordinary Chuck Palahniuk.

    Your students will gain an appreciation and understanding of ancient and modern cultures through myths and epics from the Middle East, Greece and Rome, the Far East and Pacific islands, the British Isles, Northern Europe, Africa, and the Americas. An introduction and historical background supplement each myth. Questions at the end of each selection prompt analysis and response.

    These short shorts, usually no more than 750 words, range from linear narratives to the more unusual: stories based on mathematical forms, a paragraph-length novel, a scientific report on volcanic fireflies that proliferate in nightclubs. Flash has always—and everywhere—been a form of experiment, of possibility. A new entry in the lauded Flash and Sudden Fiction anthologies, this collection includes 86 of the most beautiful, provocative, and moving narratives by authors from six continents, including best-selling writer Etgar Keret, Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah, Korean screenwriter Kim Young-ha, Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, and Argentinian “Queen of the Microstory” Ana María Shua, among many others. These brilliantly chosen stories challenge readers to widen their vision and celebrate both the local and the universal.

    She might be trapped with him during an ice storm, but she won't fall for him again.