Editor’s choice: ‘Florence Gordon’ by Brian Morton
As college students around the country debate whether to continue the tradition and stage a Valentine's Day performance of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" or cancel it for good, I...
All Stories
Editor’s choice: ‘The Secret Wisdom of the Earth’ by Christopher Scotton
So many debut novels hit just one note. Coming of age. Small-town life. Adventure. Generational bonding. Social consciousness. How marvelous to start the year of reading with Christopher Scotton's big-hearted...
Editor’s choice: ‘The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014’
Despite my best efforts, I can't keep track of everything I want to read. Aside from the obvious weekly and monthly literary magazines and journals, there are others I see...
Editor’s choice: ‘The Liar’s Wife’
"Heat was a presence, a companion, but not, as in daytime, an oppressor." It's a summer evening, and a yellow Frito-Lay delivery truck across the street looks all wrong parked...
‘The Maid’s Version’ wins 2014 Heartland Prize for Fiction
It was the summer of 1965, but Alma still did not have a television, just a radio to announce livestock prices and yield estimates. Born a farm girl, she worked...
‘Men We Reaped’ wins 2014 Heartland Prize for Nonfiction
When the Union Army's famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African-American units in the Civil War, unsuccessfully assaulted Fort Wagner in South Carolina, escaped slave Harriet Tubman...
Editor’s choice: ‘Reunion’ by Hannah Pittard
A massive storm grounds Kate's flight home to Chicago. Sitting on the tarmac, passengers check their cellphones, flight attendants announce backed up toilets. The old man sitting next to her,...
Editor’s choice: ‘Summer of the Dead’
Ackers Gap, W.Va. After my previous travels there, no encouragement was necessary for another excursion. The town is more than merely a speck on an imaginary map, and it is...
Editor’s choice: ‘The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace’
As the title of the astonishing book "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" makes clear, life did not turn out well for Robert Peace. But was it a...
Editor’s Choice: ‘Hold the Dark’ by William Giraldi
If dark, violent novels aren't usually my cup of tea, why did "Hold the Dark" exert such a hold over me, right from the start? "Hold the Dark" begins simply...