Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, David Benioff, Ana Menendez, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, Jennifer Vanderbes, Alix Ohlin, and John Murray: These are just some of the acclaimed writers whose early work has appeared in Best New American Voices since its launch in 2000.
The 2005 edition features a new crop of promising stories selected by novelist Francine Prose, who continues the tradition of identifying the best young writers on the cusp of their careers. With pieces culled from hundreds of prestigious writing programs, such as the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Johns Hopkins, and...

Annie Ernaux's father died exactly two months after she passed her practical examination for a teaching certificate. Barely educated and valued since childhood strictly for his labor, Ernaux's father had grown into a hard, practical man who showed his family little affection. Narrating his slow ascent towards material comfort, Ernaux's cold observation reveals the shame that haunted her father throughout his life. She scrutinizes the importance he attributed to manners and language that came so unnaturally to him as he struggled to provide for his family with a grocery store and cafe in rural...

Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, 'Reading Like a Writer' will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.

A spirited portrait of the colorful, irrepressible, and iconoclastic American collector who fearlessly advanced the cause of modern art

One of twentieth-century America's most influential patrons of the arts, Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) brought to wide public attention the work of such modern masters as Jackson Pollock and Man Ray. In her time, there was no stronger advocate for the groundbreaking and the avant-garde. Her midtown gallery was the acknowledged center of the postwar New York art scene, and her museum on the Grand Canal in Venice remains one of the world's...