20: The Best of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize

by John Edgar Wideman (Editor)

Overview

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize was established in 1980 to encourage and support the writing and reading of short fiction. Over the past twenty years judges such as Robert Penn Warren, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Alice McDermott, and Frank Conroy have selected the best collections from the hundreds submitted annually by up-and-coming writers.

20 represents the best of the best—one story from each of the prize-winning volumes. Chosen by acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman, the selections cover a broad range of inventive and original characters, settings, and emotions, charting the evolution of the short story over the past two decades. One of the most prestigious awards of its kind, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize has helped launch the careers of a score of previously "undiscovered" writers, many of whom have gone on to great critical success.

Past Winners of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize: David Bosworth, Robley Wilson, Jonathan Penner, Randall Silvis, W. D. Wetherell, Rick DeMarinis, Ellen Hunnicutt, Reginald McKnight, Maya Sonenberg, Rick Hillis, Elizabeth Graver, Jane McCafferty, Stewart O’Nan, Jennifer Cornell, Geoffrey Becker, Edith Pearlman, Katherine Vaz, Barbara Croft, Lucy Honig, Adria Bernardi.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822958154
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	03/02/2003
Series:	Drue Heinz Literature Prize Series
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.75(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Edgar Wideman is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Homewood Books, Brothers and Keepers, and God’s Gym. A former Rhodes scholar, his work has been widely praised for its vivid and lyrical language. He served as senior judge for the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in 1992.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	The Death of Descartes from The Death of Descartes, selected by Robert Penn Warren 1981	1
	Thief from Dancing for Men, selected by Raymond Carver 1982	61
	Frankenstein Meets the Ant People from Private Parties, selected by Wright Morris 1983	65
	The Luckiest Man in the World from The Luckiest Man in the World, selected by Joyce Carol Oates 1984	75
	The Man Who Loved Levittown from The Man Who Loved Levittown, selected by Max Apple 1985	126
	Weeds from Under the Wheat, selected by Alison Lurie 1986	143
	At St. Theresa's College for Women from In the Music Library, selected by Nadine Gordimer 1987	156
	Uncle Moustapha's Eclipse from Moustapha's Eclipse, selected by Margaret Atwood 1988	169
	Ariadne in Exile from Cartographies, selected by Robert Coover 1989	178
	Limbo River from Limbo River, selected by Russell Banks 1990	194
	Have You Seen Me? from Have You Seen Me?, selected by Richard Ford 1991	210
	Director of the World from Director of the World, selected by John Edgar Wideman 1992	226
	Winter Haven from In the Walled City, selected by Tobias Wolff 1993	234
	Rise from Departures, selected by Alice McDermott 1994	241
	Dangerous Men from Dangerous Men, selected by Charles Baxter 1995	251
	Vaquita from Vaquita, selected by Rosellen Brown 1996	264
	Fado from Fado, selected by George Garrett 1997	275
	The Woman in the Meadlights from Necessary Fictions, selected by Bharati Mukherjee 1998	289
	After from The Truly Needy and Other Stories, selected by Charles Johnson 1999	301
	Waiting for Giotto from In the Gathering Woods, selected by Frank Conroy 2000	316
	Authors' Biographies	341

What People are Saying About This

John Edgar Wideman

Here's a gift of twenty narratives from twenty writers, each author a Drue Heinz winner, each story part of a prizewinning collection. They provide confirmation in print that one tentative definition of being human might be: the storytelling animal. . . . If you read attentively, you'll probably find yourself here, but also there's the more intriguing possibility of losing yourself, entertained for a while by the play, the discipline, the weight and freedom of being other. — from the Introduction

Chuck Kinder

Rereading these 20 splendid stories was like having a reunion with dear old friends who have done very, very well in life. This is a powerful collection of vivid, varied, and important voices in American fiction. John Edgar Wideman did a wonderful editing job, a job that I for one don't envy, considering the consistently high quality of material he had to select from. I now have in my hands the short story anthology I intend to use in my writing courses until the cows come home.

Editorial Reviews

Wideman, the 1992 judge and editor of the volume, notes in his introduction that these shorts stories have changed his mind about the short story form; indeed, they may change the readers minds, as the book unfolds in the fluidity of the genre in its multifaceted representations. . . . The major appeal of this book is that the selections are so varied and so wide-ranging in content, structure, and theme.”

—Choice

“One of the finest collections of contemporary short fiction around. . . . [These] stories have that uniqueness of voice which makes them not only excellent examples of the form but also a great pleasure to read.”

—PittsburghCity Paper

“Celebrating 20 years of debuts, 20: The Best of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize . . . is worth celebrating itself.”

—Orlando Sentinel

From the Publisher