JOY WILLIAMS’s most recent book is The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories. She is the author of four novels — the most recent, The Quick and the Dead, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001—and three earlier collections of stories, as well as Ill Nature, a book of essays that was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Among her many honors are the Rea Award for the Short Story and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was elected to the Academy in 2006.
CHARLES YU is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which was a New York Times Notable Book and named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine, as well as the story collections Third Class Superhero, for which he was named one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35, and his most recent collection, Sorry Please Thank You. He lives in southern California with his family.
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published materiaclass="underline"
Donald Antrim: “Another Manhattan” from The Emerald Light in the Air by Donald Antrim, copyright © 2014 by Donald Antrim. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Jesse Balclass="underline" “The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp, and Carr” by Jesse Ball. Reprinted by permission of Jesse Ball.
NoViolet Bulawayo: “Shhh” from We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, copyright © 2013 by NoViolet Bulawayo. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company.
Kyle Coma-Thompson: “The Lucky Body” from The Lucky Body by Kyle Coma-Thompson (Dock Street Press, 2013). Reprinted by permission of Dock Street Press.
Robert Coover: “Going for a Beer” by Robert Coover, copyright © 2011 by Robert Coover (originally published in The New Yorker, March 2011). Reprinted by permission of Robert Coover.
Lucy Corin: “Madmen” by Lucy Corin. Reprinted by permission of Lucy Corin.
Rebecca Curtis: “The Toast” by Rebecca Curtis, copyright © 2014 by Rebecca Curtis (originally published by Harper’s Magazine, March 2014). Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Lydia Davis: “Men” from Can’t and Won’t by Lydia Davis, copyright © 2014 by Lydia Davis. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Don DeLillo: “Hammer and Sickle” from The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo, copyright © 2011 by Don DeLillo. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Scribner Publishing Group, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Anthony Doerr: “The Deep” by Anthony Doerr. Reprinted by permission of Amelia Atlas, agent on behalf of Anthony Doerr.
Deborah Eisenberg: “Some Other, Better Otto” from Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg, copyright © 2006 by Deborah Eisenberg. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Mary Gaitskilclass="underline" “The Arms and Legs of the Lake” from Don’t Cry: Stories by Mary Gaitskill, copyright © 2009 by Mary Gaitskill. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Rivka Galchen: “The Lost Order” from American Innovations by Rivka Galchen, copyright © 2014 by Rivka Galchen. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Rachel B. Glaser: “Pee on Water” by Rachel B. Glaser. Reprinted by permission of Publishing Genius.
Denis Johnson: “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” by Denis Johnson, copyright © 2014 by Denis Johnson. (Originally published in The New Yorker, March 2014.) Reprinted by permission of Nicole Aragi, agent on behalf of Denis Johnson.
Rebecca Lee: “Slatland” from Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee, copyright © 2013 by Rebecca Lee. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Yiyun Li: “A Man Like Him” from Gold Boy, Emerald Girclass="underline" Stories by Yiyun Li, copyright © 2010 by Yiyun Li. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Tao Lin: “Love Is a Thing on Sale for More Money than There Exists” from Bed by Tao Lin, copyright © 2007. Reprinted by permission of Melville House Publishing, LLC.
Kelly Link: “Valley of the Girls” by Kelly Link, copyright © 2011 by Kelly Link (originally published in Subterranean Online, Summer 2011 and reprinted in Get in Trouble by Kelly Link, February 2015). Reprinted by permission of Renee Zuckerbrot, agent on behalf of Kelly Link.
Sam Lipsyte: “This Appointment Occurs in the Past” from The Fun Parts by Sam Lipsyte, copyright © 2013 by Sam Lipsyte. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Maureen McHugh: “Special Economics” by Maureen McHugh. Reprinted by permission of Small Beer Press.
Donald Ray Pollock: “Fish Sticks” from Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock, copyright © 2008 by Donald Ray Pollock. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
George Saunders: “Home” from Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders, copyright © 2013 by George Saunders. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh: “Paranoia” from Brief Encounters with the Enemy: Fiction by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, copyright © 2013 by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Christine Schutt: “A Happy Rural Seat of Various View: Lucinda’s Garden” by Christine Schutt (originally published in Noon, 2004). Reprinted by permission of Christine Schutt.
Zadie Smith: “Meet the President!” by Zadie Smith, copyright © 2013 by Zadie Smith (originally published in The New Yorker, August 12, 2013). Reprinted by permission of Zadie Smith.
Mathias Svalina: “Play” by Mathias Svalina. Reprinted by permission of Mathias Svalina.
Wells Tower: “Raw Water” by Wells Tower. Reprinted by permission of Wells Tower.
Deb Olin Unferth: “Wait Till You See Me Dance” by Deb Olin Unferth (originally published in Harper’s Magazine, July 2009). Reprinted by permission of Deb Olin Unferth.
Claire Vaye Watkins: “The Diggings” from Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins, copyright © 2012 by Claire Vaye Watkins. Reprinted by permission of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Joy Williams: “The Country” by Joy Williams, copyright © Joy Williams (originally published in Tin House). All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Amelia Atlas, agent on behalf of Joy Williams.
Charles Yu: “Standard Loneliness Package” from Sorry Please Thank You: Stories by Charles Yu, copyright © 2012 by Charles Yu. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.