On the Oxford Book of American Short Stories
Oates, Joyce Carol, ed. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. pp. 896. Paperback.
I picked this up as my first major foray into pre-2010s American short stories, and this is definitely the place to start. Joyce Carol Oates’s selections are (mostly) good, but the real treasure is that she gives biographical information before each story and—sometimes—offers a little bit of the historical and literary context the stories sit in. I’m excited to read more.