Best-selling author Meg Wolitzer guest edits the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction.

“If you know exactly what you are going to get from the experience of reading a story, you probably wouldn’t go looking for it; you need, in order to be an open reader of fiction, to be willing. To cast a vote for what you love and then wait for the outcome,” writes Meg Wolitzer in her introduction. The Best American Short Stories 2017 casts a vote for and celebrates all that is our country. Here you’ll find a man with a boyfriend and a girlfriend, naval officers trapped on a submarine, a contestant on America’s Funniest Home Videos, and a gay man desperate to be a father—unforgettable characters waiting for an outcome, burning with stories to tell.

Maidencane / Chad B. Anderson --
Are we not men? / T.C. Boyle --
God's work / Kevin Canty --
A small sacrifice for an enormous happiness / Jai Chakrabarti --
Arcadia / Emma Cline --
Hog for sorrow / Leopoldine Core --
Campoamor / Patricia Engel --
Richard of York gave battle in vain / Danielle Evans --
Ugly / Mary Gordon --
The midnight zone / Lauren Groff --
The Chicane / Amy Hempel --
Tally / Noy Holland --
Gabe Dove / Sonya Larson --
Let's go to the videotape / Fiona Maazel --
Ancient Rome / Kyle McCarthy --
Last day on earth / Eric Puchner --
Novostroïka / Maria Reva --
Telemachus / Jim Shepherd --
Gender Studies / Curtis Sittenfeld --
Famous actor / Jess Walter