FLANNERY O'CONNOR, The Comforts of Home 3
ANN BEATTIE, It's Just Another Day in Big Bear City, California 22
MARK TWAIN, The $30,000 Bequest 37
EUDORA WELTY, Why I Live at the P.O. 62
WILLIAM GOYEN, Tapioca Surprise 73
STEPHEN CRANE, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky 83
WILLIAM FAULKNER, Barn Burning
CONRAD AIKEN, Strange Moonlight 113
ELIZABETH SPENCER, Moon Rocket 124
TRUMAN CAPOTE, Children on Their Birthdays 133
JOHN UPDIKE, A & P 148
ALICE MUNRO, Miles City, Montana 155
LEE K. ABBOTT, The End of Grief 175
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Day's Wait 187
ELLEN WILBUR, Wind and Birds and Human Voices
JOYCE CAROL OATES, Theft 214
BHARATI MUKHERJEE, The Tenant 255
AMY TAN, Rules of the Game 268
LOUISE ERDRICH, Love Medicine 279
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper 301
TONI CADE BAMBARA, Maggie of the Green Bottles 316
ANTON CHEKHOV, The Darling 323
D. H. LAWRENCE, The Lovely Lady 334
HENRY JAMES, Paste 350
WILLA CATHER, The Way of the World 364
VIRGINIA WOOLF, Lappin and Lapinova 377
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, The Gilded Six-Bits 385
JAMES JOYCE, The Dead 395
DORIS LESSING, To Room Nineteen 431
TILLIE OLSEN, I Stand Here Ironing 460
RAYMOND CARVER, Boxes 467
GLORIA NAYLOR, The Two 481
SHIRLEY JACKSON, Flower Garden, 489
REGINALD McKNlGHT, The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas 511
HELENA MARIA VIRAMONTES, The Cariboo cafe 522
JOHN EDGAR WIDE-MAN, Fever 535
ANNA LEE WALTERS, The Warriors 558
GEORGE GARRETT, An Evening Performance 573
CHARLES JOHNSON, China 581
ESTELA PORTILLO TRAMBLEY, Pay the Criers 598
EDGAR ALLAN POE, Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER, The Grave 623
ALLEN BARNETT, The Times As It Knows Us 629
BERNARD MALAMUD, Angel Levine 675
EDITH WHARTON, Afterward 685
SARAH ORNE JEWETT, The Landscape Chamber 711
FRANZ KAFKA, A Report to an Academy 725
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Drowne's Wooden Image 733
HERMAN MELVILLE, Bartleby, the Scrivener
JOHN CHEEVER, Torch Song 775