A collection of the year's best stories selected by celebrated two-time National Book Award
winner Jesmyn Ward In her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2021 guest editor
JesmynWard says that the best fiction offers the reader a sense of repair.The stories in this
year's collection accomplish just that immersing the reader in powerfully imagined worlds and
allowing them to bring some of that power into their own lives. From a stirring portrait of
Rodney King's final days to a surreal video game set in the Middle East with real consequences
to an indigenous boy's gripping escape from his captors this collection renders profoundly
empathetic depictions of the variety of human experience. These stories are poignant reminders
of the possibilities of fiction: as you sink into world after world become character after
character as Ward writes youforget yourself and then upon surfacing know yourself and
others anew. The Best American Short Stories 2021 includes GABRIEL BUMP • BRANDON HOBSON •
DAVID MEANS• JANE PEK • TRACEY ROSE PEYTON • GEORGE SAUNDERS • BRYAN WASHINGTON • KEVIN WILSON
• C PAM ZHANG and others
