The Pushcart Prize 1999: Best of the Small Presses (No 23) (The Pushcart Prize Anthologies, 23) - Hardcover

Henderson, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1888889098 ISBN 13: 9781888889093

Publisher: Pushcart Press, 1998

Synopsis

A treasury of short stories, poems, and essays, selected from literary magazines and small presses across the country, represents today's most innovative writing from a host of both acclaimed authors and new talents.

About this title

About the Author

Bill Henderson is the founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize. He received the 2006 National Book Critic Circle’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. He is also the author of several memoirs, including All My Dogs: A Life. The founder of the Lead Pencil Club, Henderson lives on Long Island and In Maine where he runs the Pushcart bookstore – “the world’s smallest bookstore.”

Reviews

This generous collection of 69 pieces gathers quality writing from small presses and literary journals. Several of the best stories, poems and essays focus on child-parent relationships. Francine Prose's essay, "The Old Morgue," lovingly recalls a fascinating, if occasionally ghoulish, childhood spent in the company of her father, a pathologist. In Meg Wolitzer's short story, "Tea at the House," the daughter of a psychiatrist at an asylum struggles to distinguish between madness and normal adolescent confusion. Jeffrey Eugenides poignantly captures the natural erosion of aging in "Timeshare," examining a grown son's tentative bond with his father, a haplessly optimistic entrepreneur. Stuart Dybek's story, "Blowing Shades," finds sensual, image-driven grace in a mother's not-quite-secret affair with a younger man. Kimiko Hahn's gorgeous and compelling poem, "Sewing Without Mother: A Zuihitsu," considers loss and the nature of grieving. On a different tack, Patricia Hampl's "The Bill Collector's Vacation" unveils a world of complexity in the bland microcosm of two strangers waiting for their credit union to open one morning. Hemingway's classic short story "In Another Country" is the subject of Andre Dubus's essay, in which he chronicles his 30-year relationship with that particular story and pays eloquent tribute to the transformative power of literature. Philip Levine's "Two Journeys" could be a companion piece, with its incisive and very personal exploration of what it means to be a writer. Martin Espada's poem, "Thanksgiving," brings fresh, sardonic perspective to bear on American tradition. There are also poems of note by Marilyn Hacker, William Matthews, Laura Kasischke, Pattiann Rogers and Carol Muske. In his introduction, Henderson describes the anthology as "our annual celebration." There is indeed much to celebrate here, not the least of which is the vitality and creativity displayed by smaller presses nationwide.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Here - s the ever-welcome annual sampling of noncommercial publishing, full enough of poems, stories, and essays to redeem Henderson's somewhat self-congratulatory introductory declaration of literary independence (and survival). This year the essays rank a bit higher than the stories, despite biggish-name contributions by Colum McCann, Jeffery Eugenides, Frederick Busch, and Stephen Dixon. Founding editor Joyce Carol Oates delivers a hallmark portrayal of family secrets and hidden violence in ``Faithless,'' and Thomas Disch offers a jet-black satire of NEA-sponsored theater in ``The First Annual Performance Festival at Slaughter Rock.'' Otherwise, the stories often show the watermark of writing workshops in their pages (although none of this basically competent selection could be confused with the assembly-line fiction of the '80s). The idiosyncratic personal essay is clearly well suited to the Pushcart arena, although essays here are outnumbered by other genres. The best include Andre Dubus's moving reflection on teaching Hemingway's story ``In Another Country''; Francine Prose's quirky profile of her father's career as a pathologist at New York City - s Bellevue Hospital; Julie Showalter's vivid memoir of hardscrabble farming in ``The Turkey Stories''; and Emily Fox Gordon's tartly amusing rumination on girls'-school hierarchies and modern feminism in ``The Most Responsible Girl.'' The few essays about poetry, such as Carol Muske - s on Auden's honorable self-sabotage of his laureateship in ``There Goes the Nobel Prize,'' outstrip in quality many of the poems. Among the poetry contributors are Toi Derricotte, Marilyn Hacker, and Grace Schulman. ``Nobody wants to buy us!'' exclaims Henderson, to account for Pushcart's successful existence outside corporate publishing - no one, that is, except readers interested in good writing. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Once again the editors of The Pushcart Prize anthology reap a bountiful harvest of the fruits of small-press publishing, a yield even more impressive than last year's. The essays, short stories, and poems gathered here are fresh and varied, nourishing and invigorating. The subjects explored and styles of expression used with such finesse exemplify the best of traditional approaches and the most arresting of innovations. Essays range from Carol Muske's piquant look at the role of the poet in society, "There Goes the Nobel Prize," to Jeff Walken's "Junk," a harrowing investigation into the allure and danger of heroin. The universe of short stories is well represented by the likes of Patricia Hampl, Stephen Dixon, Richard Bausch, and a host of new writers. Poetry, too, is presented in a chorus of established and emerging voices. Technologically paranoid book lovers predicted the demise of serious writing and publishing in the computer age, but clearly the opposite has occurred: all that digital power is fueling a spectacular literary flowering. Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Pushcart Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1888889098
• ISBN 13: 9781888889093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 606