Best New American Voices

Each year the nation's most driven would-be writers seek out the structure and support of the many creative writing MFA programs and-as this volume proves-produce inspired work under their auspices. Now in its eighth year, this series showcases stories nominated by workshop directors and instructors and selected, in this case, by guest editor Bausch (Thanksgiving Night). A number of the writers featured in this edition breathe new life into familiar themes-the University of Iowa's Leslie Jamison takes on heartbreak, Stanford's Suzanne Rivecca examines sexual abuse, University of Massachusetts, Amherst's Jedediah Berry looks at death, Elizabeth Kadetsky represents the Wesleyan Writers Conference with a tale of innocence lost, and Adam Stumacher of the Wisconsin Institute takes on political strife-but just as many craft deftly original stories that defy easy categorization; one standout example is a playful story from the University of Mississippi's Christopher Stokes, ""The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefellar,"" set in colonial Indonesia and narrated by a shrewd native. In his introduction, guest editor Bausch says that literature's ongoing quest is ""to make something lasting out of the confusions of living""; these imaginative debut artists offer happy proof that the challenge is still being met.