The Best American Short Stories 1998

The Best American Short Stories 1998, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...

Short stories included

Author	Story	Source
Kathryn Chetkovich	"Appetites"	Zyzzyva Zyzzyva Zyzzyva is a genus of tropical American weevil often found in association with palms. It is a snouted beetle. "Zyzzyva" is the last word in many English-language dictionaries....
Poe Balantine	"The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue"	The Sun The Sun (newspaper) The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
Diane Schoemperlen Diane Schoemperlen Diane Mavis Schoemperlen is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. She was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and educated at Lakehead University....	"Body Language"	Story Story (magazine) Story was a magazine founded in 1931 by journalist-editor Whit Burnett and his first wife, Martha Foley, in Vienna, Austria. Showcasing short stories by new authors, 67 copies of the debut issue were mimeographed in Vienna, and two years later, Story moved to New York City where Burnett and Foley...
Edith Pearlman Edith Pearlman -Life:Pearlman grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and graduated from Radcliffe College. She has worked in a computer firm and a soup kitchen and has served in the Town Meeting of Brookline, Massachusetts....	"Chance"	The Antioch Review
Akhil Sharma Akhil Sharma Akhil Sharma is an Indian-American author.Born in Delhi, India, he immigrated to the United States when he was eight, and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Sharma studied at Princeton University, where he earned his B.A. in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School...	"Cosmopolitan"	The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
Carol Anshaw Carol Anshaw Carol Anshaw is an American novelist and short story writer. Her books include Lucky in the Corner, Seven Moves and Aquamarine. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories in 1994 and 1998. She acquired her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts...	"Elvis Has Left the Building"	Story Story (magazine) Story was a magazine founded in 1931 by journalist-editor Whit Burnett and his first wife, Martha Foley, in Vienna, Austria. Showcasing short stories by new authors, 67 copies of the debut issue were mimeographed in Vienna, and two years later, Story moved to New York City where Burnett and Foley...
Chris Adrian Chris Adrian Chris Adrian is an American author. Adrian's writing styles in short stories vary a great deal, from modernist realism to pronounced lyrical allegory. His novels both tend toward surrealism, having mostly realistic characters experience fantastic circumstances. He has written three novels: Gob's...	"Every Night for a Thousand Years"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Maxine Swann Maxine Swann -Life:Swann grew up on a farm in southern Pennsylvania, before attending Phillips Academy and then Columbia College, where she studied Comparative Literature and creative writing with Mary Gordon, graduating in 1994....	"Flower Children"	Ploughshares Ploughshares Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
Emily Carter Emily Carter Emily Carter is an American writer. She has been married to ex-punk rock guitarist Johnnie Sage Ammentorp since 1999...	"Glory Goes and Gets Some"	Open City Open city In war, in the event of the imminent capture of a city, the government/military structure of the nation that controls the city will sometimes declare it an open city, thus announcing that they have abandoned all defensive efforts....
Annie Proulx	"The Half-Skinned Steer"	The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
Doran Larson	"Morhphine"	Virginia Quarterly Review
Bliss Broyard	"Mr. Sweetly Indecent"	Ploughshares Ploughshares Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
John Updike John Updike John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....	"My Father on the Verge of Disgrace"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Matthew Crain	"Penance"	Harpers Magazine Harpers Magazine Harpers Wine and Spirit Trade Review or simply Harpers is a British fortnightly publication for the wine and spirit industry. Founded in 1878, it has a circulation of 5,224 fully subscribed readers. It is read across all sectors of the drinks industry including producers, distributors,...
Lorrie Moore Lorrie Moore Lorrie Moore is an American fiction writer known mainly for her humorous and poignant short stories.-Biography:...	"People Like That Are the Only People Here"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Meg Wolitzer Meg Wolitzer Meg Wolitzer is an American writer, born on Long Island, New York. She is the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer.She studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981. She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with...	"Tea at the House"	Ploughshares Ploughshares Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
Antonya Nelson Antonya Nelson Antonya Nelson is an American author and teacher of creative writing who writes primarily short stories.-Life and education:Antonya Nelson was born January 6, 1961 in Wichita, Kansas....	"Unified Front"	The Midwesterner
Padgett Powell Padgett Powell Padgett Powell is an American novelist in the Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, Edisto , was nominated for the American Book Award and was excerpted in The New Yorker. Powell has written four more novels—including Edisto Revisited , a sequel to his debut, Mrs...	"Wayne in Love"	New England Review New England Review The New England Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. Founded in New Hampshire in 1978 by poet, novelist, editor and professor Sydney Lea and poet Jay Parini, it was published as New England Review & Bread Loaf Quarterly from 1982 , until 1991 as a formal...
Tim Gautreaux Tim Gautreaux Timothy Martin Gautreaux is a novelist and short story writer who lives in Hammond, Louisiana, where he is Writer in Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University....	"Welding with Children"	The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic Monthly The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
Hester Kaplan Hester Kaplan -Life:She grew up in Cambridge. She graduated from Barnard College.She has taught writing at Rhode Island School of Design and teaches at Lesley University....	"Would You Know It Wasn't Love"	Gulf Coast

Short stories included

Other notable stories