Best American

The best science fiction and fantasy stories from 2019, guest-edited by author of the mega-best-selling Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon. Today's readers of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to read about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. Contemporary science fiction and fantasy looks to accomplish the same goal as ever - to illuminate what it means to be human. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and Diana Gabaldon, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.

Steph Cha, a rising star who brings a fresh perspective as series editor, takes the helm of the new The Best American Mystery and Suspense, with best-selling crime novelist Alafair Burke joining her as the first guest editor. "Crime writers, forgive the pun, are killing it right now creatively," writes guest editor Alafair Burke in her introduction. "It was difficult-painful even-to narrow this year's Best American Mystery and Suspense to only twenty stories." Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York's gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 includes Jenny Bhatt • Gar Anthony Haywood • Gabino Iglesias • Aya De León • Laura Lippman Delia C. Pitts • Alex Segura • Faye Snowden • Lisa Unger And Others

#1 New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr brings his "stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors" (San Francisco Chronicle) to selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019. Doerr and the series editor, Heidi Pitlor, winnow down twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year. Read by a full cast including: Kevin R. Free, Gabra Zackman, Scott Shepherd, Sullivan Jones, Christine Lakin, Brittany Pressley, Zach Villa, Saskia Maarleveld, Ali Ahn, Robin Miles, Roxana Ortega, Wilson Bethel, Robert Petkoff, Jefferson Mays, Dariush Kashani, Megan Tusing, Christopher Ryan Grant, Therese Plummer, Criena House, and Emily Woo Zeller

A collection of the year's best science fiction and fantasy writing selected by New York Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang and series editor John Joseph Adams. R. K. Kuang, New York Times bestselling author of the “Poppy War” trilogy and “Babel,” selects twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explores the ever-expanding and changing world of science fiction and fantasy today.

A collection of the year's best mystery short fiction selected by New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning author C. J. Box. C. J. Box, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the hugely popular Joe Pickett series, selects the best short mystery and crime fiction of the year in this annual "treat for crime-fiction fans" (Library Journal).

A collection of the year's best short stories, selected by National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee and series editor Heidi Pitlor. Min Jin Lee, author of the highly acclaimed “Pachinko,” selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Award-winning writer, columnist, and journalists Carl Zimmer selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in 2022. A collection of the best science and nature articles written in 2022, selected by guest editor Carl Zimmer and series editor Jaime Green.

"To read their stories felt to me the way I suspect other people feel hearing jazz for the first time," recalls Curtis Sittenfeld of her initial encounter with the Best American Short Stories series. "They were windows into emotions I had and hadn't had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships." Decades later, Sittenfeld was met by the same feeling selecting the stories for this year's edition. The result is a striking and nuanced collection, bringing to life awkward college students, disgraced public figures, raunchy grandparents, and mystical godmothers. To read these stories is to experience the transporting joys of discovery and affirmation, and to realize that story writing in America continues to flourish. THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2020 INCLUDES: T. C. BOYLE • EMMA CLINE • MARY GAITSKILL • ANDREA LEE • ELIZABETH McCRACKEN • ALEJANDRO PUYANA WILLIAM PEI SHIH • KEVIN WILSON and others