The Pushcart Prize 2008: An Annual Small Press Reader: 32nd Anniversary Edition

Henderson culls the year’s best short stories, poetry and essays from lit mags and small presses and proves once again that the small venues are great sources for discovering new writers and staying current with the lions. Nam Le’s hard-hitting “Cartagena” starts off the collection with a stark portrayal of a Colombian hit man in over his head. In Stephanie Powell Watts’s “Unassigned Territory,” a reluctant young black Jehovah’s Witness finds herself searching for meaningful human connection while handing out Watchtower s in backwoods North Carolina. In Rick Bass’s subtle and brilliant “Goats,” two aspiring cattle barons roam the outskirts of Houston, buying scrawny calves while keeping tabs on an aging rancher suffering from dementia. Herb Golbert remembers Saul Bellow in “A Genius for Grief,” while the posthumously published poem of Liam Rector, who committed suicide earlier this year, evokes a Pulitzer winner contemplating his failure to love (“That’s where I truly fucked up./ I couldn’t”). Steven Millhauser’s “The Dome” offers a creepy if all-too-plausible view of the future in which communities seal themselves off beneath plastic domes. Hipsters and boomers alike will find something to appreciate in this powerhouse. (Dec.)