Best of the West Anthology

From Seth Horton:

I just wanted to send out a quick note to let everyone know that the series, Best of the West: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri, has finally returned.  As some of you may remember, this yearly anthology of short fiction began in 1988.  The first two volumes were published by Gibbs Smith Books in Utah.  The series then migrated to New York City where Norton published the next three volumes. Those early anthologies contained stories by such luminaries as Ray Carver, Leslie Marmon Silko, Kent Meyers, William Kittredge, Joy Harjo, Ron Hansen, and Ron Carlson.

Now, after a hiatus of seventeen years, I am pleased to announce that the University of Texas Press has just released the sixth volume in the series; volumes seven and eight will appear over the next two years.  The current volume includes stories by Annie Proulx, Louise Erdrich, Dagoberto Gilb, Joyce Carol Oates, Antonya Nelson, Lee K. Abbott, and a number of emerging writers.  Rick Bass wrote the forward.  James Thomas and I co-edited the book.  You can see the table of contents for yourself at: http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/horbep.html.

The editors at the University of Texas Press have expressed an interest in establishing the series on a more permanent basis if these books sell, which would give western writers a steady platform through which to find an audience.  To that end, if any of you decide to use our anthology in your classes, I would be more than happy to engage in an online question and answer session with your students about how the book was edited, potential relationships between the stories, how various writers seem to conceptualizing the region, or anything else that you’d like me to address.  Just shoot me an e-mail and we’ll set something up.

Best,
Seth Horton