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The Best American Short Stories 2025
“Short stories can act like little tuning forks, helping us to clarify our own values,” writes guest editor Celeste Ng. “In a time when our values are being tested daily, it’s hard to think of anything more important.” The Best American Short Stories 2025 resonates precisely at this twenty pieces that upend expectations and test the foundation of our beliefs. From a bereaved medical actress obsessed with a student in her rotation to a mysterious sickness that ignites a lethal running mania in its victims, and from the grounds of a wild animal estate to a celebrity look-alike mother-for-hire, these stories transport readers to the impossible edges of our world and vivify characters who reflect the spectrum of human experience.
THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2025 LAUREN ACAMPORA • SARAH BRAUNSTEIN • BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON • ELIZABETH McCRACKEN • CARRIE R. MOORE • ANDREW PORTER • WILLIAM PEI SHIH • JUSTIN TAYLOR • JESSICA TREADWAY • AND OTHERS
THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2025 LAUREN ACAMPORA • SARAH BRAUNSTEIN • BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON • ELIZABETH McCRACKEN • CARRIE R. MOORE • ANDREW PORTER • WILLIAM PEI SHIH • JUSTIN TAYLOR • JESSICA TREADWAY • AND OTHERS
383 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 21, 2025
About the author
Celeste Ng
15 books93.6k followersCeleste Ng is the author of three novels, Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts.
Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was a New York Times bestseller, a
New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. Everything I Never Told You was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the ALA’s Alex Award. It has been translated into over thirty languages and is being adapted for the screen.
Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017) was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a best book of the year by over 25 publications, the winner of the Ohioana Award and the Goodreads Readers Choice Award 2017 in Fiction, and spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list.
Little Fires Everywhere has been published abroad in more than 30 languages and has been adapted as a limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, will be published on October 4, 2022.
Celeste grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan). Her fiction and essays have appeared in the
New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications, and she is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.
Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was a New York Times bestseller, a
New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. Everything I Never Told You was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the ALA’s Alex Award. It has been translated into over thirty languages and is being adapted for the screen.
Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017) was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a best book of the year by over 25 publications, the winner of the Ohioana Award and the Goodreads Readers Choice Award 2017 in Fiction, and spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list.
Little Fires Everywhere has been published abroad in more than 30 languages and has been adapted as a limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, will be published on October 4, 2022.
Celeste grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan). Her fiction and essays have appeared in the
New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications, and she is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
November 29, 2025
a process of reading a story and going “yeah but I bet the next one won’t be as good as that” and being wrong 20 times in a row
April 24, 2026
2.5 stars
These stories are not badly written but this is probably my least favorite of all of these prize anthologies I have read. BASS got a new series editor this year in Nicole Lamy, whose taste I perhaps agree with less than Heidi Pitlor’s, while the O. Henry anthology series under Jenny Minton Quigley has emerged as my favorite. From this volume, I only liked 5 out of 20 stories, and the rest, I mostly didn’t even dislike for interesting reasons: they just ran together into a sea of beige, forgettable stories.
My favorites:
“Dominion” by Lauren Acampora: A rich man keeps a private zoo, but things go poorly when his granddaughter’s class comes to visit. I simultaneously sympathized with him and wanted to see a comeuppance. A tense read, a satisfyingly unreliable narrator, and a lot to think about.
“Angelo” by Andrew Porter: A relationship between two queer boys from disadvantaged and troubled families, one of whom wants to be an artist. Well-realized and effective, with a strong sense of place.
“Third Room” by Julian Robles: A slippery magic realist story about a writer who finds a man in an unused room. I’m not sure I fully get this one but there’s a lot to dig into here, a lot of strangeness and thematic depth, while the more mundane bits ring true.
Honorable mentions:
“The Masterclass” by William Pei Shih: A piano teacher throws their own student under the bus in an attempt to get ahead. Emotionally effective and feels authentic. I’m not sure what to think about the decision to remove gender markers from all the characters, perhaps in an attempt to universalize them.
“Aishwarya Rai” by Sanjana Thakur: A quasi-speculative story about a woman who tries to “adopt” a mother from something like an animal shelter. Fun and effective.
The rest:
“Take Me to Kirkland” by Sarah Anderson: A girl likes Costco, and also her friend goes missing. Kind of confusing. Even the Costco layout doesn’t ring true.
“What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?” by Emma Binder: A young trans man visits his family in the rural Midwest and is on edge for potential hate crimes. I think this is probably good, though it didn’t do a lot for me.
“Abject Naturalism” by Sarah Braunstein: A single mother is obsessed with stranger danger (and assumes its corollary, that anyone you know is safe). Well-written but uninspiring.
“Unfathomably Deep” by Sophie Madeline Dess: A bonkers story about a woman working as a gynecological test dummy, that despite its violence never fully grabbed me.
“Maritza and Carmen” by Lyn Di Iorio: A not-great policewoman loses her memory after being injured in a hurricane, and becomes a new person. This was fine, just didn’t do much for me. Maybe a little too subtle in that I didn’t realize she’d tazed herself till reading the author’s note.
“Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges” by Isabelle Fang: A woman works on a reality show and also sells her panties. Again, fine, but forgettable for me.
“Time of the Preacher” by Bret Anthony Johnston: A working-class libertarian helps his ex-wife out during the COVID-19 pandemic. This too was a story.
“Underwater” by Hannah Kingsley-Ma: A woman puts the dysfunction in both her natal and marital families. Confusing to find a continuity error in something this short (did the sister marry them, or a judge?).
“Drapetomania” by William Lohier: One of those high-concept literary stories with its very own dystopian allegory for racism. The symbolism works well enough, on-the-nose in a variety of ways, but the actual story of the actual characters did nothing for me and the romance element felt like a poor choice.
“The Clean-Out” by Yasmin Adele Majeed: Three generations of women deal with family legacies. The narrator, the youngest, is quite passive.
“Seven Stories About Tammy” by Elizabeth McCracken: More family drama. Shoots high but ultimately not notable for me.
“Till It and Keep It” by Carrie R. Moore: An okay post-apocalyptic climate story. It was interesting at the end to realize it was supposed to be about the sisters and the tragedy of their separation, when it read more like a story about a woman finding romance, belonging, and security while her sister got in the way.
“Yellow Tulips” by Nathan Curtis Roberts: A fine story about the single Mormon father of a disabled adult son during COVID-19.
“What About This” by Justin Taylor: Strong voice and style but otherwise not much appeal in this road trip story.
“An Early Departure” by Jessica Treadway: An aunt who wishes she were a mother confronts the limitations of being an aunt. It’s unclear how much of a relationship she ever had with her niece and nephew, and I have to think if she’d had more of one she’d have offered some help in the nephew’s predicament, even just advice. Perhaps that’s the point: that while she wants motherhood in the abstract, she’s no more attached to these particular young people than they are to her.
These stories are not badly written but this is probably my least favorite of all of these prize anthologies I have read. BASS got a new series editor this year in Nicole Lamy, whose taste I perhaps agree with less than Heidi Pitlor’s, while the O. Henry anthology series under Jenny Minton Quigley has emerged as my favorite. From this volume, I only liked 5 out of 20 stories, and the rest, I mostly didn’t even dislike for interesting reasons: they just ran together into a sea of beige, forgettable stories.
My favorites:
“Dominion” by Lauren Acampora: A rich man keeps a private zoo, but things go poorly when his granddaughter’s class comes to visit. I simultaneously sympathized with him and wanted to see a comeuppance. A tense read, a satisfyingly unreliable narrator, and a lot to think about.
“Angelo” by Andrew Porter: A relationship between two queer boys from disadvantaged and troubled families, one of whom wants to be an artist. Well-realized and effective, with a strong sense of place.
“Third Room” by Julian Robles: A slippery magic realist story about a writer who finds a man in an unused room. I’m not sure I fully get this one but there’s a lot to dig into here, a lot of strangeness and thematic depth, while the more mundane bits ring true.
Honorable mentions:
“The Masterclass” by William Pei Shih: A piano teacher throws their own student under the bus in an attempt to get ahead. Emotionally effective and feels authentic. I’m not sure what to think about the decision to remove gender markers from all the characters, perhaps in an attempt to universalize them.
“Aishwarya Rai” by Sanjana Thakur: A quasi-speculative story about a woman who tries to “adopt” a mother from something like an animal shelter. Fun and effective.
The rest:
“Take Me to Kirkland” by Sarah Anderson: A girl likes Costco, and also her friend goes missing. Kind of confusing. Even the Costco layout doesn’t ring true.
“What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?” by Emma Binder: A young trans man visits his family in the rural Midwest and is on edge for potential hate crimes. I think this is probably good, though it didn’t do a lot for me.
“Abject Naturalism” by Sarah Braunstein: A single mother is obsessed with stranger danger (and assumes its corollary, that anyone you know is safe). Well-written but uninspiring.
“Unfathomably Deep” by Sophie Madeline Dess: A bonkers story about a woman working as a gynecological test dummy, that despite its violence never fully grabbed me.
“Maritza and Carmen” by Lyn Di Iorio: A not-great policewoman loses her memory after being injured in a hurricane, and becomes a new person. This was fine, just didn’t do much for me. Maybe a little too subtle in that I didn’t realize she’d tazed herself till reading the author’s note.
“Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges” by Isabelle Fang: A woman works on a reality show and also sells her panties. Again, fine, but forgettable for me.
“Time of the Preacher” by Bret Anthony Johnston: A working-class libertarian helps his ex-wife out during the COVID-19 pandemic. This too was a story.
“Underwater” by Hannah Kingsley-Ma: A woman puts the dysfunction in both her natal and marital families. Confusing to find a continuity error in something this short (did the sister marry them, or a judge?).
“Drapetomania” by William Lohier: One of those high-concept literary stories with its very own dystopian allegory for racism. The symbolism works well enough, on-the-nose in a variety of ways, but the actual story of the actual characters did nothing for me and the romance element felt like a poor choice.
“The Clean-Out” by Yasmin Adele Majeed: Three generations of women deal with family legacies. The narrator, the youngest, is quite passive.
“Seven Stories About Tammy” by Elizabeth McCracken: More family drama. Shoots high but ultimately not notable for me.
“Till It and Keep It” by Carrie R. Moore: An okay post-apocalyptic climate story. It was interesting at the end to realize it was supposed to be about the sisters and the tragedy of their separation, when it read more like a story about a woman finding romance, belonging, and security while her sister got in the way.
“Yellow Tulips” by Nathan Curtis Roberts: A fine story about the single Mormon father of a disabled adult son during COVID-19.
“What About This” by Justin Taylor: Strong voice and style but otherwise not much appeal in this road trip story.
“An Early Departure” by Jessica Treadway: An aunt who wishes she were a mother confronts the limitations of being an aunt. It’s unclear how much of a relationship she ever had with her niece and nephew, and I have to think if she’d had more of one she’d have offered some help in the nephew’s predicament, even just advice. Perhaps that’s the point: that while she wants motherhood in the abstract, she’s no more attached to these particular young people than they are to her.
November 24, 2025
The BASS series is one of my favorite compilations of short stories. This year Celeste Ng is the guest editor with Nicole A. Lamy as the series editor. Along with the stories, I enjoy reading the editors' Foreword and Introduction, as well as the story authors' notes in the back.
I had higher hopes for this year's selections. Out of the twenty stories, twelve were pretty good, a couple of them were creepy or cringy and the rest were meh. It is always difficult to rate this as a book because the stories vary
These were my favorites:
What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do for Me? By Emma Binder was sad. It is hard to come home when you are not the same person who left.
Abject Naturalism by Sarah Braunstein - The author admits she had so many situations she didn’t know how to end it. It shows.
A single mother fears for her daughter out in the world. When the girl comes home with a telescope that an elderly neighbor gave her, at first she is mistrustful but then envisions him as their savior.
Maritza and Carmen by Lyn Di Iorio - A woman swept away by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico has no memory of it. She runs a café with a guy she lives with. When there is a picture of her in a newspaper, she finds out that she has a daughter. This brings back memories of her relationship with her own mother rather than her daughter. After they meet, her mate is surprised that she chooses her current life rather than going back to her old life.
Time of the Preacher by Bret Anthony Johnston - A divorced guy gets called by his ex-wife to help her find a loose snake in the rental unit she manages. He wonders if this is a ploy by her to see him. She tells him she is concerned about him because COVID is rampant and he is alone. He takes an old recliner from the place that was left behind, not knowing that that is where the snake is hiding. Like a fable.
Underwater by Hannah Kingsley-Ma -
A woman marries into a family that is much closer to each other than she is used to, especially her husband and his sister. There is a tension between the two. When they vacation together, she accidentally throws a stick for the family dog who chases it over a waterfall. Not a good way to ingratiate yourself with a family who already has its doubts about you. LOL
Drapetomania by William Lohier - Good story but scary.
The Clean-Out by Yasmin Adele Majeed – A good story about a mother/daughter relationship.
Seven Stories About Tammy – by Elizabeth McCracken – Tammy is always the topic of conjecture in a family, especially about her age.
Till It and Keep It by Carrie R. Moore – I’m not usually a fan of dystopian stories but this was very good but very scary and sad.
Angelo by Andrew Porter – Tragic love
Aishwarya Rai by Sanjana Thakur – This one was pretty good.
A woman unhappy with her real mother rents out mothers from an agency in a quest to find the perfect one. She is also obsessed with an actress. When she finds herself on a photo shoot assignment with the actress, she draws attention to herself. The actress banishes her. In the end the woman calls her real mother to have her comfort her.
An Early Departure by Jessica Treadway - A woman who sees herself as a favorite aunt to her niece and nephew considers herself like a mother to them. When the nephew gets into trouble in school, the niece calls her to bail him out. When she refuses, she is persona non grata. Not the favorite anymore.
I had higher hopes for this year's selections. Out of the twenty stories, twelve were pretty good, a couple of them were creepy or cringy and the rest were meh. It is always difficult to rate this as a book because the stories vary
These were my favorites:
What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do for Me? By Emma Binder was sad. It is hard to come home when you are not the same person who left.
Abject Naturalism by Sarah Braunstein - The author admits she had so many situations she didn’t know how to end it. It shows.
A single mother fears for her daughter out in the world. When the girl comes home with a telescope that an elderly neighbor gave her, at first she is mistrustful but then envisions him as their savior.
Maritza and Carmen by Lyn Di Iorio - A woman swept away by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico has no memory of it. She runs a café with a guy she lives with. When there is a picture of her in a newspaper, she finds out that she has a daughter. This brings back memories of her relationship with her own mother rather than her daughter. After they meet, her mate is surprised that she chooses her current life rather than going back to her old life.
Time of the Preacher by Bret Anthony Johnston - A divorced guy gets called by his ex-wife to help her find a loose snake in the rental unit she manages. He wonders if this is a ploy by her to see him. She tells him she is concerned about him because COVID is rampant and he is alone. He takes an old recliner from the place that was left behind, not knowing that that is where the snake is hiding. Like a fable.
Underwater by Hannah Kingsley-Ma -
A woman marries into a family that is much closer to each other than she is used to, especially her husband and his sister. There is a tension between the two. When they vacation together, she accidentally throws a stick for the family dog who chases it over a waterfall. Not a good way to ingratiate yourself with a family who already has its doubts about you. LOL
Drapetomania by William Lohier - Good story but scary.
The Clean-Out by Yasmin Adele Majeed – A good story about a mother/daughter relationship.
Seven Stories About Tammy – by Elizabeth McCracken – Tammy is always the topic of conjecture in a family, especially about her age.
Till It and Keep It by Carrie R. Moore – I’m not usually a fan of dystopian stories but this was very good but very scary and sad.
Angelo by Andrew Porter – Tragic love
Aishwarya Rai by Sanjana Thakur – This one was pretty good.
A woman unhappy with her real mother rents out mothers from an agency in a quest to find the perfect one. She is also obsessed with an actress. When she finds herself on a photo shoot assignment with the actress, she draws attention to herself. The actress banishes her. In the end the woman calls her real mother to have her comfort her.
An Early Departure by Jessica Treadway - A woman who sees herself as a favorite aunt to her niece and nephew considers herself like a mother to them. When the nephew gets into trouble in school, the niece calls her to bail him out. When she refuses, she is persona non grata. Not the favorite anymore.
January 25, 2026
4.25 stars
The Best American Short Stories 2025 is edited by Celeste Ng and contains twenty short stories chosen by Ng from a larger pool of contenders selected by Nicole A. Lamy.
The majority of the stories are literary fiction, although a few have speculative premises. One theme that appears frequently within these stories is family relationships—particularly the relationship between parents and children. Perhaps this reflects Ng’s interests, as these themes appear frequently in her own work.
I really liked most of these stories. Although there were a few that didn’t quite work for me, I could understand why each story made it into a “best of” collection.
My favorite stories are “Abject Naturalism” by Sarah Braunstein and “Seven Stories about Tammy” by Elizabeth Cracken.
If you’re looking for a strong sampling of works from different writers, this is a great book to check out.
August 24, 2026
tldr: Good short stories in general. Lukewarm short stories for 2025. (Sorry if I come off strong in this one. I've been having really bad mood swings lately).
It's appalling that you could be a grown adult (Gen Z, Millennial) and still be told that your experiences do not matter. So often are the issues of the younger generation trivialized, overlooked, and belittled. This anthology, though it contains a selection of stellar stories, reeks of middle-aged issues and sentiments of the "good ole days."
I usually save this part of my short story anthologies to the end, but here I find it pertinent to place it front and centre. This is the anthology's zeitgeist check. Here are the number of stories about:
Notice how out of 20 stories, 15 of them write about the lack of connection. Yet, none of them discusses its root cause in any meaningful way: social media, ubiquitous digitalization, and a collective faithlessness (both in spirit and in religion) of the future.
I refuse to believe that out of all the hundreds of essays forwarded to Celeste Ng, none of them dealt with the above topics. But, if so, the fact that none of them were worthy enough to deserve the status of "best" under Ng's eyes is actually the same issue.
In fact, there is generally speaking a reluctance to incorporate modern technology as it is (i.e. no sci-fi) into serious writing. The collateral damage is a reluctance to write about the very real issues that burgeon from said modern technology. It is equally taboo to write about technology and social media as it is to write about shitting and doing chores. Why? Is it because the use of modern technology is shameful (i.e. shitting), or is it because it is uninteresting, trivial (i.e. doing chores)?
The writing industry as a whole needs to bite the bullet on this matter. We will not be ignored forever. You can't tell me that the most decorated "social media" coming-of-age story is STILL Elif Batuman's The Idiot (2017), written during the time when the command "finger" was still used to look someone up in a directory of names? Why? Why is that?
But let's be fair first. Many characters in these short stories do make us of phones and social media, but their engagement of it is so analogue, so straightforward, so narratively formulaic that if they were using Nokia 6110s instead of smartphones, the story would require no further editing.
Please, editors of annual short story anthologies, I am begging you! The advantage of an annual short story anthology is that it also serves as a sociological biosphere into a specific time. One should be able to read an anthology of 2025 and know exactly what these people were concerned with. In the introduction, Ng claims that stories are nothing but meaningful lies -- but this could not be further than the truth. Stories, to me, are the collective memories of humanity made tangible, and for that they are more real, even compared to newspaper clippings and research papers, than anything in the world.
Let us not forget that the etymology of "fiction" comes from the Latin "fingere:" of clay, to mould, to shape, to make real (!!!).
We MUST include stories about the issues of today for the people who will bear them tomorrow. This anthology offers no such support. And on that note, out of 20 stories, 6 dedicated to motherhood? ...Really?
Anyway, here's the breakdown. My favourites are marked with a star.
1) "Dominion" by Lauren Acampora
Rich man keeps a private zoo for his own vanity and invites a class of children to come visit. A child is hurt, and so too is the rich man's ego.
2) ★ "Take Me to Kirkland" by Sarah Anderson
A girl loses her best friend first to growing up and then forever. Exploring a Lenu-and-Lila dynamic, this short story weaves nostalgia with regret and reality with innocence into a tapestry of heartache.
I loved the way this story flowed, like a kaleidoscope of memories -- unsorted, shattered, overwhelming, yet ebullient all the same.
3) "What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me" by Emma Binder
A transman returns to his hometown. He saves a man who turns out to be his old classmate. He joins their party, recognising every one of them but is unrecognised (or so he hopes) in return.
4) "Abject Naturalism" by Sarah Braunstein
Single mother gives up her writing career to look after her child, of whom she is protective and smothering. There is a stranger who is the exact opposite of her ex. There is also a telescope which symbolizes her eventual resolve to "look beyond/look past" things.
I'm pretty biased against stories about single mother issues. There is a LOT more of these to come (and in all of them, the father is absent but no one talks about that??), but I do acknowledge the craft of this particular one.
5) ★ "Unfathomably Deep" by Sophie Madeline
A girl works as a Gynaecological Teaching Assistant and falls in love with a doctor in training. Her puppy love soon evolves into obsession, but to say more is to spoil its incredible ending. Hint: it was never really about the doctor.
Masterful: every element down to the word choice, the unravelling of information, and the classical references are deliberately placed.
6) "Maritza and Carmen" by Lyn Di Iorio
Maritza lost her memory from a natural disaster. She then discovers that she has a daughter. Celeste Ng describes this story as the struggle to "reconcile the disparate parts of oneself," but I understood it more as a complicated love borne from generational trauma.
Another motherhood story, but this one at least escapes the melodramatic, sappy tropes.
7) "Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges" by Isabelle Fang
Young Chinese woman sells her panties to some middle-aged white guy. Meanwhile, young Filipino woman is on a reality TV show documenting the sale of her life to her fiancé, a middle-aged white guy.
Again, Ng misses the mark on this one. "A coming-of-age story" and a "complex portrayal of the many different forms love can take" my ass. What the hell. This story is straight-up about White worship and Asian fetishization.
8) "Time of the Preacher" by Bret Anthony Johnston
A divorced man works as a carpenter during the Covid pandemic. He receives a call from his ex-wife who asks for help with a snake in her tenant's apartment. Incidentally, the tenant, a preacher, had conveniently vacated the premises without paying rent.
I liked this one a lot. Was the snake just an excuse for two estranged old flames to meet? While the world is going to hell, this broken couple recognises the love they have always shared while also acknowledging the distance (emotional, physical, spiritual) that continues to keep them apart.
9) "Underwater" by Hannah Kingsley Ma
Sam (F) marries Sam (M), who has a twin sister, Lizzy. Sam (F) is convinced that twins, especially a boy and a girl pair, must have some deeper and more intimate connection. Sam (F) begins to feel jealous of Lizzy over Sam (M), her sentiments bordering on obsession. Chaos ensues.
10) ★ "Drapetomania" by William Lohier
A satire about a certain disease, "Drapetomania," that compels its host to run for their lives until they die. The disease incidentally only affects black people.
Phenomenal story although with an unnecessarily shoehorned love story.
11) "The Clean-Out" by Yasmin Adele Majeed.
How many more of these "mother-and-daughter" stories must you subject us to? We get it! Motherly love is complicated and not without its sacrifices!
Boring as rocks protagonist. Boring as rocks story. As a rule, I never DNF a work, but I DNF'd this one 80% in. Sorry, but I had no confidence that the extra three pages was worth even five more minutes of my time.
12) ★ "Seven Stories About Tammy" by Elizabeth McCracken
Great short story about some family drama. Titled "Seven Stories About Tammy," it is really seven stories about how a certain family views their son's wife, Tammy. In revealing their disdain for Tammy (not to say she doesn't deserve it), they subconsciously reveal their own vileness and the subcutaneous reasons why their family begins to fall apart.
13) "Till It and Keep It" by Carrie R. Moore
Two sisters are on the road headed to Maine in search of greener lands and more temperate weathers, but due to unforeseen circumstances, they get held up on a peach farm. It is a land of plenty.
This cli-fi short story excels at creating an atmosphere of loss and desolation. A love story and changing values forces these two sisters to drift apart.
14) "Angelo" by Andrew Porter
Two childhood friends never get the chance to fulfil their dreams -- one wants to be an artist; the other, lovers -- due to poverty and messy family situations. Nonetheless, they continue to seek each other out.
15) "Yellow Tulips" by Nathan Curtis Roberts
A man takes his neurodivergent son on walks during the Covid lockdown. The neighbours, full of fear, do not appreciate the son's carefree oblivious. God, do we all need some Jesus in us.
I didn't care for this story at all. I found it whiney and emotionally manipulative, like those pop-up ads with pictures of sick children asking for donations.
16) ★ "Third Room" by Julian Robles
A tenant discovers a strange third room in his apartment. Someone lives there now, and it seems as though anyone who goes in can never get out.
Loved this one. The premise is like a Junji Ito horror story, but it's written with such a laissez-faire, matter-of-fact tone that one feels with intimacy the tenant's frustration, loneliness, and uncanny apathy.
17) "The Masterclass" by William Pei Shih
A jealous piano teacher throws their talented student under the bus and denies him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Outwardly, this short story is about the toxic and competitive nature of prestigious classical art schools. Allegorically, it reflects the mechanisms of power -- arbitrary, gatekeeping, superficial -- of institutions in general.
18) "What About This" by Justin Taylor
And what about it? Downtrodden preacher-in-training engages in hedonism and sleeps with a woman. So? This is white man fiction. I've spent my whole life reading fiction like this -- overtly religious yet full of freedom (read: debauchery) that only white men are allowed.
19) ★ "Aishwarya Rai" by Sanjana Thakur
In this world, you can adopt a mother from a shelter of lost mothers. Our protagonist, despite having a (real, biological) mother of her own, struggles to find the right one.
This short story is a refreshing change from the barrage of motherhood stories Ng has been shoving down my throat. It is about motherhood told from the perspective of the child and many other "mothers," but never from the real mother herself.
20) ★ "An Early Departure" by Jessica Treadway
Our protagonist prides herself with being the "second mother" to her niece and nephew. But when her niece asks for help on a serious matter, she must suddenly reconcile with the limits and nature of love -- both her motherly love towards her niece and nephew, and their transactional, manipulative love in return.
And... we end with another story about motherhood! But I liked this one a lot because it's not about motherhood in the traditional sense -- protective, smothering, worrying, dramatic wailing -- but about change, the loss of innocence, and responsibility.
Rating: 3/5
Short stories enjoyed: 7/20 (not bad!)
Time read: 7.5 hours
It's appalling that you could be a grown adult (Gen Z, Millennial) and still be told that your experiences do not matter. So often are the issues of the younger generation trivialized, overlooked, and belittled. This anthology, though it contains a selection of stellar stories, reeks of middle-aged issues and sentiments of the "good ole days."
I usually save this part of my short story anthologies to the end, but here I find it pertinent to place it front and centre. This is the anthology's zeitgeist check. Here are the number of stories about:
Lack of connection: 15
Motherhood: 6
Queer love: 5
Environmental/consumerist issues: 5
Christian faith: 4
Beauty standards: 3
Racial issues: 3
Covid-19: 2
Notice how out of 20 stories, 15 of them write about the lack of connection. Yet, none of them discusses its root cause in any meaningful way: social media, ubiquitous digitalization, and a collective faithlessness (both in spirit and in religion) of the future.
I refuse to believe that out of all the hundreds of essays forwarded to Celeste Ng, none of them dealt with the above topics. But, if so, the fact that none of them were worthy enough to deserve the status of "best" under Ng's eyes is actually the same issue.
In fact, there is generally speaking a reluctance to incorporate modern technology as it is (i.e. no sci-fi) into serious writing. The collateral damage is a reluctance to write about the very real issues that burgeon from said modern technology. It is equally taboo to write about technology and social media as it is to write about shitting and doing chores. Why? Is it because the use of modern technology is shameful (i.e. shitting), or is it because it is uninteresting, trivial (i.e. doing chores)?
The writing industry as a whole needs to bite the bullet on this matter. We will not be ignored forever. You can't tell me that the most decorated "social media" coming-of-age story is STILL Elif Batuman's The Idiot (2017), written during the time when the command "finger" was still used to look someone up in a directory of names? Why? Why is that?
But let's be fair first. Many characters in these short stories do make us of phones and social media, but their engagement of it is so analogue, so straightforward, so narratively formulaic that if they were using Nokia 6110s instead of smartphones, the story would require no further editing.
Please, editors of annual short story anthologies, I am begging you! The advantage of an annual short story anthology is that it also serves as a sociological biosphere into a specific time. One should be able to read an anthology of 2025 and know exactly what these people were concerned with. In the introduction, Ng claims that stories are nothing but meaningful lies -- but this could not be further than the truth. Stories, to me, are the collective memories of humanity made tangible, and for that they are more real, even compared to newspaper clippings and research papers, than anything in the world.
Let us not forget that the etymology of "fiction" comes from the Latin "fingere:" of clay, to mould, to shape, to make real (!!!).
We MUST include stories about the issues of today for the people who will bear them tomorrow. This anthology offers no such support. And on that note, out of 20 stories, 6 dedicated to motherhood? ...Really?
Anyway, here's the breakdown. My favourites are marked with a star.
1) "Dominion" by Lauren Acampora
Rich man keeps a private zoo for his own vanity and invites a class of children to come visit. A child is hurt, and so too is the rich man's ego.
2) ★ "Take Me to Kirkland" by Sarah Anderson
A girl loses her best friend first to growing up and then forever. Exploring a Lenu-and-Lila dynamic, this short story weaves nostalgia with regret and reality with innocence into a tapestry of heartache.
I loved the way this story flowed, like a kaleidoscope of memories -- unsorted, shattered, overwhelming, yet ebullient all the same.
3) "What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me" by Emma Binder
A transman returns to his hometown. He saves a man who turns out to be his old classmate. He joins their party, recognising every one of them but is unrecognised (or so he hopes) in return.
4) "Abject Naturalism" by Sarah Braunstein
Single mother gives up her writing career to look after her child, of whom she is protective and smothering. There is a stranger who is the exact opposite of her ex. There is also a telescope which symbolizes her eventual resolve to "look beyond/look past" things.
I'm pretty biased against stories about single mother issues. There is a LOT more of these to come (and in all of them, the father is absent but no one talks about that??), but I do acknowledge the craft of this particular one.
5) ★ "Unfathomably Deep" by Sophie Madeline
A girl works as a Gynaecological Teaching Assistant and falls in love with a doctor in training. Her puppy love soon evolves into obsession, but to say more is to spoil its incredible ending. Hint: it was never really about the doctor.
Masterful: every element down to the word choice, the unravelling of information, and the classical references are deliberately placed.
6) "Maritza and Carmen" by Lyn Di Iorio
Maritza lost her memory from a natural disaster. She then discovers that she has a daughter. Celeste Ng describes this story as the struggle to "reconcile the disparate parts of oneself," but I understood it more as a complicated love borne from generational trauma.
Another motherhood story, but this one at least escapes the melodramatic, sappy tropes.
7) "Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges" by Isabelle Fang
Young Chinese woman sells her panties to some middle-aged white guy. Meanwhile, young Filipino woman is on a reality TV show documenting the sale of her life to her fiancé, a middle-aged white guy.
Again, Ng misses the mark on this one. "A coming-of-age story" and a "complex portrayal of the many different forms love can take" my ass. What the hell. This story is straight-up about White worship and Asian fetishization.
8) "Time of the Preacher" by Bret Anthony Johnston
A divorced man works as a carpenter during the Covid pandemic. He receives a call from his ex-wife who asks for help with a snake in her tenant's apartment. Incidentally, the tenant, a preacher, had conveniently vacated the premises without paying rent.
I liked this one a lot. Was the snake just an excuse for two estranged old flames to meet? While the world is going to hell, this broken couple recognises the love they have always shared while also acknowledging the distance (emotional, physical, spiritual) that continues to keep them apart.
9) "Underwater" by Hannah Kingsley Ma
Sam (F) marries Sam (M), who has a twin sister, Lizzy. Sam (F) is convinced that twins, especially a boy and a girl pair, must have some deeper and more intimate connection. Sam (F) begins to feel jealous of Lizzy over Sam (M), her sentiments bordering on obsession. Chaos ensues.
10) ★ "Drapetomania" by William Lohier
A satire about a certain disease, "Drapetomania," that compels its host to run for their lives until they die. The disease incidentally only affects black people.
Phenomenal story although with an unnecessarily shoehorned love story.
11) "The Clean-Out" by Yasmin Adele Majeed.
How many more of these "mother-and-daughter" stories must you subject us to? We get it! Motherly love is complicated and not without its sacrifices!
Boring as rocks protagonist. Boring as rocks story. As a rule, I never DNF a work, but I DNF'd this one 80% in. Sorry, but I had no confidence that the extra three pages was worth even five more minutes of my time.
12) ★ "Seven Stories About Tammy" by Elizabeth McCracken
Great short story about some family drama. Titled "Seven Stories About Tammy," it is really seven stories about how a certain family views their son's wife, Tammy. In revealing their disdain for Tammy (not to say she doesn't deserve it), they subconsciously reveal their own vileness and the subcutaneous reasons why their family begins to fall apart.
13) "Till It and Keep It" by Carrie R. Moore
Two sisters are on the road headed to Maine in search of greener lands and more temperate weathers, but due to unforeseen circumstances, they get held up on a peach farm. It is a land of plenty.
This cli-fi short story excels at creating an atmosphere of loss and desolation. A love story and changing values forces these two sisters to drift apart.
14) "Angelo" by Andrew Porter
Two childhood friends never get the chance to fulfil their dreams -- one wants to be an artist; the other, lovers -- due to poverty and messy family situations. Nonetheless, they continue to seek each other out.
15) "Yellow Tulips" by Nathan Curtis Roberts
A man takes his neurodivergent son on walks during the Covid lockdown. The neighbours, full of fear, do not appreciate the son's carefree oblivious. God, do we all need some Jesus in us.
I didn't care for this story at all. I found it whiney and emotionally manipulative, like those pop-up ads with pictures of sick children asking for donations.
16) ★ "Third Room" by Julian Robles
A tenant discovers a strange third room in his apartment. Someone lives there now, and it seems as though anyone who goes in can never get out.
Loved this one. The premise is like a Junji Ito horror story, but it's written with such a laissez-faire, matter-of-fact tone that one feels with intimacy the tenant's frustration, loneliness, and uncanny apathy.
17) "The Masterclass" by William Pei Shih
A jealous piano teacher throws their talented student under the bus and denies him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Outwardly, this short story is about the toxic and competitive nature of prestigious classical art schools. Allegorically, it reflects the mechanisms of power -- arbitrary, gatekeeping, superficial -- of institutions in general.
18) "What About This" by Justin Taylor
And what about it? Downtrodden preacher-in-training engages in hedonism and sleeps with a woman. So? This is white man fiction. I've spent my whole life reading fiction like this -- overtly religious yet full of freedom (read: debauchery) that only white men are allowed.
19) ★ "Aishwarya Rai" by Sanjana Thakur
In this world, you can adopt a mother from a shelter of lost mothers. Our protagonist, despite having a (real, biological) mother of her own, struggles to find the right one.
This short story is a refreshing change from the barrage of motherhood stories Ng has been shoving down my throat. It is about motherhood told from the perspective of the child and many other "mothers," but never from the real mother herself.
20) ★ "An Early Departure" by Jessica Treadway
Our protagonist prides herself with being the "second mother" to her niece and nephew. But when her niece asks for help on a serious matter, she must suddenly reconcile with the limits and nature of love -- both her motherly love towards her niece and nephew, and their transactional, manipulative love in return.
And... we end with another story about motherhood! But I liked this one a lot because it's not about motherhood in the traditional sense -- protective, smothering, worrying, dramatic wailing -- but about change, the loss of innocence, and responsibility.
Rating: 3/5
Short stories enjoyed: 7/20 (not bad!)
Time read: 7.5 hours
January 9, 2026
This worked well for me because I was looking for a break from longer novels, and it helped me ease into the new year. The star ratings below are based entirely on how much I enjoyed and/or connected with each story.
Dominion: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Take Me to Kirkland: ⭐️⭐️
What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me?: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Abject Naturalism: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unfathomably Deep: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (what did I just read????!!!!)
Maritza and Carmen: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges: DNF
Time of the Preacher: ⭐️⭐️
Underwater: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drapetomania: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (wao!!)
The Clean-Out: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Seven Stories About Tammy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Till It and Keep It: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Angelo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yellow Tulips: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Third Room: ... (too abstract for me, cannot rate)
The Masterclass: ⭐️⭐️⭐️(it was good, but too depressing for me)
What About This: DNF
Aishwarya Rai: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An Early Departure: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dominion: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Take Me to Kirkland: ⭐️⭐️
What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me?: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Abject Naturalism: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unfathomably Deep: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (what did I just read????!!!!)
Maritza and Carmen: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges: DNF
Time of the Preacher: ⭐️⭐️
Underwater: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drapetomania: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (wao!!)
The Clean-Out: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Seven Stories About Tammy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Till It and Keep It: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Angelo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yellow Tulips: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Third Room: ... (too abstract for me, cannot rate)
The Masterclass: ⭐️⭐️⭐️(it was good, but too depressing for me)
What About This: DNF
Aishwarya Rai: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An Early Departure: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 1, 2026
the time has come.... first time where i read so many stories explicitly taken place during covid. these are tactful stories however (unlike ari aster's 'eddington'), an especially heartbreaking moment from "time of the preacher" where a man understands that, if he moved towards his ex-wife, she would move away to maintain six feet.
overall a good collection; some stories were much stronger than others, some were much more elusive, some were clear and traditional. it's interesting in that sense how this anthology speaks more about celeste ng's taste rather than any inherent "bestness" of each.
that said, my favorites were, in no particular order, "dominion", "abject naturalism", "drapetomania", "third room", and "the masterclass". i've also made a list of the most elusive stories, the ones i don't completely understand and would need to reread: "unfathomably deep," underwater", "drapetomania", "seven stories about tammy" (especially this one), and "third room".
overall a good collection; some stories were much stronger than others, some were much more elusive, some were clear and traditional. it's interesting in that sense how this anthology speaks more about celeste ng's taste rather than any inherent "bestness" of each.
that said, my favorites were, in no particular order, "dominion", "abject naturalism", "drapetomania", "third room", and "the masterclass". i've also made a list of the most elusive stories, the ones i don't completely understand and would need to reread: "unfathomably deep," underwater", "drapetomania", "seven stories about tammy" (especially this one), and "third room".
April 27, 2026
Yes, another exceptional collection. Of them all, I liked McCracken’s the best, at nearly 40 closely printed pages it’s almost a novella. It’s truly fabulous. A quote:
'They'd given her a glass of white wine that tasted green as a tree, with an aftertaste of violin.'
'They'd given her a glass of white wine that tasted green as a tree, with an aftertaste of violin.'
December 17, 2025
I look forward to this collection every year. Never disappoints.
February 8, 2026
A new year and a new chapter for Best American Short Stories! Heidi Pitlor’s tenure has ended, and Nicole A. Lamy has taken up the reigns.
Alas, I think we’re starting on a little bit of a downer note. :/ 2025 isn’t my favorite edition of BASS. But I’m in this for the long haul, and will be back next year!
Meanwhile, Lamy introduces herself by sharing her credentials: from an 8th grade project featuring a BASS story, to getting sand in her copy of Little Women (intense beach reading), to frequenting bookstores for authors she found this year. I will say, I added two books to my TBR based on two of these short stories. So we’re of a kind!
Our guest editor, Celeste Ng, steps in with an ironic edge. She has to write the intro, and she admits she never reads BASS intros. And yet, what is an intro besides a place to talk about her personal taste in short stories? It’s almost a defensive argument for her curation process. Maybe that’s a little unfair. I liked her take on why the stories spoke to her. But I can’t help but notice most literary fiction writers being drawn to science fiction, then diminishing the genre in their analysis of the stories. (Eg, her analysis of “Till It and Keep It” by Carrie R. Moore is that it “transcends the ‘cli-fi’ genre by weaving a nuanced story about sisterhood…etc.” If you’re not gonna get anything out of reading about speculative environmental issues, why not just stick to realism??)
Granted, I found myself more ornery than usual this year, highlighting stories that stuck to my preferred styles and topics, yet still nitpicking at them, too. Here are the seven stories that particularly struck some sort of chord.
“Dominion” by Lauren Acampora (The New England Review.) A retired oil magnate invites his granddaughter’s elementary school class to his vanity menagerie. When (albeit mild) tragedy strikes, we get a look into his internal defensiveness, and even a desire to do good. It’s a little on the nose, and I kinda wish we got the POV of his more sympathetic wife, who was nevertheless part of this endeavor. It’s probably my fave story of the collection, and I added the novel where this character appears to my TBR.
“What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?” by Emma Binder (Michigan Quarterly Review). Granted, this story largely jumped out to me because I’ve read it before! Thanks to my on-and-off subscription to Journal of the Month, they sent me the issue of Michigan Quarterly Review where this story first appeared. I reviewed it on BookTube and now I feel like I’m in with the in crowd. :P Anywho, this story is about a trans man coming home for the first time to his small, rural town. I think what I appreciate most right now is the juxtaposition of Cody’s family life, and the action of the story where he saves the guy on the ice. Because the ensuing bar scene was so tense that I wouldn’t grasp onto why he feels such affinity for his hometown. But the first part adds that texture.
“Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges” by Isabelle Fang (McSweeney’s). This is a two-fisted story, one about an Asian woman who sells her panties online and one about an Asian woman in a “mail order bride” reality TV scenario (granted mostly from the POV of the first Asian woman.) The beginning was a little clunky, but both stories are about the melding of the real and not real in relationships. Both are about Asian American women who are eroticized by older white men. The panties story, since its longer and the main POV, allows for more nuance about what the characters are up to. The reality tv story invites more broad insight into the allure of transgression.
“The Clean-Out” by Yasmin Adele Majeed (Narrative). A Filipino-American family addresses old wounds while cleaning out the house belonging to their husband/stepfather/step-grandfather. I liked the complicated tension between the mother and grandmother, and the way the house was its own repository of family history. I thought the bird’s fate hinted at the human entrapment. I do wish the daughter POV had more of a personality—some of the passivity came from the fact that she was talking from the future.
“Seven Stories About Tammy” by Elizabeth McCracken (Zoetrope.) These seven sub-stories are a culmination of a WASPY family’s relationship to an enigmatic, opinionated in-law. They chronicle the family’s first meeting with the in-law, all the way up to her death. Some of the younger brother’s sections jumped too much in time for me, making me want a sweeping family novel instead. But overall, McCracken nailed the short story that feels like a novel, and it’s likely my second favorite in the collection.
“Angelo” by Andrew Porter (Ploughshares.) Two guys are sexually involved as they navigate a perilous young adulthood, but then one of them marries a woman, leaving the other pining for him. I liked the bittersweet grief about how love and dreams can be lost due to broken families and lack of commitment. But I didn’t get the full sense that the young men started out this story in high school. It felt a little more like the go-nowhere, drug-addled, small town-living haze of young adulthood.
“An Early Departure” by Jessica Treadway (Five Points). To be honest, this is largely a “mirror” story for me, given the focus on a spinster aunt’s relationship with her sister’s children. I’ve often claimed I would defend my niece and nephew, even if they robbed a bank. But what would it really be like if one of them asked me for a short cut to get them out of trouble? Would I be depressed to disappoint them? Yes. Would I feel jilted if they tried to butter me up? Yes. I arch my eyebrow a little, in this instance, that the nephew’s university didn’t alert his parents to the situation. (Maybe cos he’s technically an adult?) Still, the story is forthcoming in a collection by the author coming out this year, so I added it to my TBR. Third fave. :p
Alas, I think we’re starting on a little bit of a downer note. :/ 2025 isn’t my favorite edition of BASS. But I’m in this for the long haul, and will be back next year!
Meanwhile, Lamy introduces herself by sharing her credentials: from an 8th grade project featuring a BASS story, to getting sand in her copy of Little Women (intense beach reading), to frequenting bookstores for authors she found this year. I will say, I added two books to my TBR based on two of these short stories. So we’re of a kind!
Our guest editor, Celeste Ng, steps in with an ironic edge. She has to write the intro, and she admits she never reads BASS intros. And yet, what is an intro besides a place to talk about her personal taste in short stories? It’s almost a defensive argument for her curation process. Maybe that’s a little unfair. I liked her take on why the stories spoke to her. But I can’t help but notice most literary fiction writers being drawn to science fiction, then diminishing the genre in their analysis of the stories. (Eg, her analysis of “Till It and Keep It” by Carrie R. Moore is that it “transcends the ‘cli-fi’ genre by weaving a nuanced story about sisterhood…etc.” If you’re not gonna get anything out of reading about speculative environmental issues, why not just stick to realism??)
Granted, I found myself more ornery than usual this year, highlighting stories that stuck to my preferred styles and topics, yet still nitpicking at them, too. Here are the seven stories that particularly struck some sort of chord.
“Dominion” by Lauren Acampora (The New England Review.) A retired oil magnate invites his granddaughter’s elementary school class to his vanity menagerie. When (albeit mild) tragedy strikes, we get a look into his internal defensiveness, and even a desire to do good. It’s a little on the nose, and I kinda wish we got the POV of his more sympathetic wife, who was nevertheless part of this endeavor. It’s probably my fave story of the collection, and I added the novel where this character appears to my TBR.
“What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?” by Emma Binder (Michigan Quarterly Review). Granted, this story largely jumped out to me because I’ve read it before! Thanks to my on-and-off subscription to Journal of the Month, they sent me the issue of Michigan Quarterly Review where this story first appeared. I reviewed it on BookTube and now I feel like I’m in with the in crowd. :P Anywho, this story is about a trans man coming home for the first time to his small, rural town. I think what I appreciate most right now is the juxtaposition of Cody’s family life, and the action of the story where he saves the guy on the ice. Because the ensuing bar scene was so tense that I wouldn’t grasp onto why he feels such affinity for his hometown. But the first part adds that texture.
“Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges” by Isabelle Fang (McSweeney’s). This is a two-fisted story, one about an Asian woman who sells her panties online and one about an Asian woman in a “mail order bride” reality TV scenario (granted mostly from the POV of the first Asian woman.) The beginning was a little clunky, but both stories are about the melding of the real and not real in relationships. Both are about Asian American women who are eroticized by older white men. The panties story, since its longer and the main POV, allows for more nuance about what the characters are up to. The reality tv story invites more broad insight into the allure of transgression.
“The Clean-Out” by Yasmin Adele Majeed (Narrative). A Filipino-American family addresses old wounds while cleaning out the house belonging to their husband/stepfather/step-grandfather. I liked the complicated tension between the mother and grandmother, and the way the house was its own repository of family history. I thought the bird’s fate hinted at the human entrapment. I do wish the daughter POV had more of a personality—some of the passivity came from the fact that she was talking from the future.
“Seven Stories About Tammy” by Elizabeth McCracken (Zoetrope.) These seven sub-stories are a culmination of a WASPY family’s relationship to an enigmatic, opinionated in-law. They chronicle the family’s first meeting with the in-law, all the way up to her death. Some of the younger brother’s sections jumped too much in time for me, making me want a sweeping family novel instead. But overall, McCracken nailed the short story that feels like a novel, and it’s likely my second favorite in the collection.
“Angelo” by Andrew Porter (Ploughshares.) Two guys are sexually involved as they navigate a perilous young adulthood, but then one of them marries a woman, leaving the other pining for him. I liked the bittersweet grief about how love and dreams can be lost due to broken families and lack of commitment. But I didn’t get the full sense that the young men started out this story in high school. It felt a little more like the go-nowhere, drug-addled, small town-living haze of young adulthood.
“An Early Departure” by Jessica Treadway (Five Points). To be honest, this is largely a “mirror” story for me, given the focus on a spinster aunt’s relationship with her sister’s children. I’ve often claimed I would defend my niece and nephew, even if they robbed a bank. But what would it really be like if one of them asked me for a short cut to get them out of trouble? Would I be depressed to disappoint them? Yes. Would I feel jilted if they tried to butter me up? Yes. I arch my eyebrow a little, in this instance, that the nephew’s university didn’t alert his parents to the situation. (Maybe cos he’s technically an adult?) Still, the story is forthcoming in a collection by the author coming out this year, so I added it to my TBR. Third fave. :p
December 30, 2025
These were good.
April 4, 2026
A couple of duds herein, but only a couple. 5 stars overall.
September 9, 2026
The worst thing I’ve ever read. Every story was like having a tooth pulled.
April 12, 2026
feels like being kept company to read an anthology to hear rather mundane lives honored, all the ways in which people are trying and failing
every story was really sharp on the sentence level but only a few felt actually moving
favorites were:
Till it and Keep it by Carrie R Moore
Drapetomania by William Lohier
What Would I Do for You What Would You Do for Me? by Emma Binder
Grey, Cotton, White Lace Edges by Isabelle Fang
every story was really sharp on the sentence level but only a few felt actually moving
favorites were:
Till it and Keep it by Carrie R Moore
Drapetomania by William Lohier
What Would I Do for You What Would You Do for Me? by Emma Binder
Grey, Cotton, White Lace Edges by Isabelle Fang
January 6, 2026
favorites were what would i do for you, seven stories about tammy, angelo, and aishwarya rai. but overall i didn’t like this year’s anthology as much, too many stories about covid and navel-gazey mfa stories (stories about writers whose writing professors tell them not to write stories about writers). i guess my taste is different from celeste ng’s
October 30, 2025
Dominion: Interesting look into an individual's justifications, and how easily one can ignore obvious ideas.
Take Me to Kirkland: We often believe we will always have the opportunity to forgive and make up with those in our life, and maybe it is more important to have them. Also, a bit of a take on obsessive/proprietary nature of young female friendships.
What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?: Tension lingers just under the surface of this, thin as ice thematically. Cody goes to the bar but the entire experience hinges on Kevin either not noticing or not saying anything, which impacts Cody's ability to simply exist as a man at the bar.
AN: Small acts of kindness can span larger results, and connection between strangers/individuals is still possible in our world today.
UD: Oh my god... Not at all what the story makes you expect, and the ending makes you NEED to go back and reread the entire story again
M&C: Is it possible to reconcile the different versions of yourself? You from years ago compared to now, you as a child compared to now, you ten minutes ago compared to now
GCWLE: A look into reality television, a look into how one keeps track of themselves, a question of racial fetishization, and a look at how people grow up.
TotP: First one I didn’t really connect with
Underwater: Can we ever really know another person? Also: everyone's family is messed up in their own way.
Drapetomania: Ng suggests not googling the meaning of the word until after reading the story and if you don’t already know the definition I second that.
TCO: Generational curses can shift and change, each generation does not owe the next or the previous an explanation of their choices.
SSOT: This manages to fully flesh out an entire family of characters in one short story. Also... How old is Tammy?!
TI&KI: What to do when those closest to you shave different thoughts and desires regarding what to do next?
Angelo: Some endings are simply a change, not a true ending or a start of something new, but a shifting of the meaning.
YT: Ehh. Felt like it tried to cram too much in and nothing was developed.
3R: Isolation, other than that damn this was a weird one.
TM: Not everyone is going to achieve the highest honors, and for some people, the reach for achieving never stops, no matter what accolades have been achieved.
AR: There is no one ‘right’ way to mother a daughter or daughter a mother. We are all trying our best.
AED: Actions have consequences, and eventually everyone must face theirs. We cannot cover for the others in our lives in perpetuity.
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.
Take Me to Kirkland: We often believe we will always have the opportunity to forgive and make up with those in our life, and maybe it is more important to have them. Also, a bit of a take on obsessive/proprietary nature of young female friendships.
What Would I Do For You, What Would You Do For Me?: Tension lingers just under the surface of this, thin as ice thematically. Cody goes to the bar but the entire experience hinges on Kevin either not noticing or not saying anything, which impacts Cody's ability to simply exist as a man at the bar.
AN: Small acts of kindness can span larger results, and connection between strangers/individuals is still possible in our world today.
UD: Oh my god... Not at all what the story makes you expect, and the ending makes you NEED to go back and reread the entire story again
M&C: Is it possible to reconcile the different versions of yourself? You from years ago compared to now, you as a child compared to now, you ten minutes ago compared to now
GCWLE: A look into reality television, a look into how one keeps track of themselves, a question of racial fetishization, and a look at how people grow up.
TotP: First one I didn’t really connect with
Underwater: Can we ever really know another person? Also: everyone's family is messed up in their own way.
Drapetomania: Ng suggests not googling the meaning of the word until after reading the story and if you don’t already know the definition I second that.
TCO: Generational curses can shift and change, each generation does not owe the next or the previous an explanation of their choices.
SSOT: This manages to fully flesh out an entire family of characters in one short story. Also... How old is Tammy?!
TI&KI: What to do when those closest to you shave different thoughts and desires regarding what to do next?
Angelo: Some endings are simply a change, not a true ending or a start of something new, but a shifting of the meaning.
YT: Ehh. Felt like it tried to cram too much in and nothing was developed.
3R: Isolation, other than that damn this was a weird one.
TM: Not everyone is going to achieve the highest honors, and for some people, the reach for achieving never stops, no matter what accolades have been achieved.
AR: There is no one ‘right’ way to mother a daughter or daughter a mother. We are all trying our best.
AED: Actions have consequences, and eventually everyone must face theirs. We cannot cover for the others in our lives in perpetuity.
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.
December 30, 2025
Nice mix of short stories; some hit or miss, but most of them were quite enjoyable.
Read
February 26, 2026my main takeaways:
- celeste ng (the issue editor) likes religious stories, stories about religion or of a religious flavor
- short stories can take years to perfect, and also everyone is mostly just stealing from their lives and processing them one way or another on the page
favorites from the collection:
time of the preacher - bandana-masked guy goes to his ex-wife's rental property to help her get rid of a snake. is there actually a snake? what does she really want?-- wait, what does *he* really want? funny and sensitive
underwater - the cast is tiny and the story happens just over a few days. the main characters are sam, and sam, who are married, and sam's sister lizzy. and sam is on vacation with sam's family. sam has five sister's also. a funny and gorgeous exploration of love and jealously in an intimate relationship. and did i mention funny?
angelo - i just love the inseparable bestfriends/possible lovers trope especially when it's kind of unbalanced & time-limited like this. also angelo's an artist. reminds me a lot of my friends by fredrik backman
the masterclass - A SHORT STORY ABOUT SOMEONE PREPARING THE RACH 3 CONCERTO AFTER THEY'VE ALREADY PLAYED THE 2ND AND 1ST. say less
what about this - this one is also about a preacher. but a pretty badass hemingway-esque preacher. i could see myself becoming more like this if i read more of these kinds of prose. coolest preacher i've read
- celeste ng (the issue editor) likes religious stories, stories about religion or of a religious flavor
- short stories can take years to perfect, and also everyone is mostly just stealing from their lives and processing them one way or another on the page
favorites from the collection:
time of the preacher - bandana-masked guy goes to his ex-wife's rental property to help her get rid of a snake. is there actually a snake? what does she really want?-- wait, what does *he* really want? funny and sensitive
underwater - the cast is tiny and the story happens just over a few days. the main characters are sam, and sam, who are married, and sam's sister lizzy. and sam is on vacation with sam's family. sam has five sister's also. a funny and gorgeous exploration of love and jealously in an intimate relationship. and did i mention funny?
angelo - i just love the inseparable bestfriends/possible lovers trope especially when it's kind of unbalanced & time-limited like this. also angelo's an artist. reminds me a lot of my friends by fredrik backman
the masterclass - A SHORT STORY ABOUT SOMEONE PREPARING THE RACH 3 CONCERTO AFTER THEY'VE ALREADY PLAYED THE 2ND AND 1ST. say less
what about this - this one is also about a preacher. but a pretty badass hemingway-esque preacher. i could see myself becoming more like this if i read more of these kinds of prose. coolest preacher i've read
December 3, 2025
I love writing drive-by reviews of my favorite stories in this annual series but it’s been months since I read this. But for the record, and for when I inevitably look back on this for new authors to read, the best from this strong collection include:
“Abject Naturalism” - Sarah Braunstein
“Gray, Cotten, White Lace Edges” - Isabelle Fang
“Underwater” - Hannah Kingsley-Ma
“Drapetomania” - William Lohier
“Seven Stories About Tammy” - Elizabeth McCracken*
“Third Room” - Julian Robles
“An Early Departure” - Jessica Treadway
*The best of the lot
“Abject Naturalism” - Sarah Braunstein
“Gray, Cotten, White Lace Edges” - Isabelle Fang
“Underwater” - Hannah Kingsley-Ma
“Drapetomania” - William Lohier
“Seven Stories About Tammy” - Elizabeth McCracken*
“Third Room” - Julian Robles
“An Early Departure” - Jessica Treadway
*The best of the lot
March 23, 2026
i understand that this is celeste's personal selection from a longlist of stories provides by someone else, but surprised that these are the Best of what 2025 had to offer
still good to get a wide variety of stories from the year but i think i've read better ones by simply reading the paris review or a singular literary magazine with more of a motif around the selection of stories
this felt mildly hodgepodge
still good to get a wide variety of stories from the year but i think i've read better ones by simply reading the paris review or a singular literary magazine with more of a motif around the selection of stories
this felt mildly hodgepodge
March 10, 2026
Why is all prose starting to sound the same
January 12, 2026
The stories oscillated between a few really solid and thought-provoking ones to amateur MFA writing (you know when contemporary fiction tries way too hard and it ends up being super random and unrealistic and the main character is insufferable in an obviously try-hard way idk). Honestly by the last few i was really struggling to get through. disappointed in celeste ng's selections given how much i like her books
However if you do read a few, here are my favs:
What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me? - Cody, a trans man, returns to his conservative midwestern small town and saves a dude from drowning. the dude and the dude's friends invite Cody to a bar and Cody feels like they're going to hate crime him, but they don't end up hate criming him. this was so sad and a twinge hopeful. i really enjoyed this one because it seemed realistic while portraying a niche but important experience/perspective
Till It and Keep It - dystopian future where the american south is completely fucked up from climate change and 2 women who are each others' chosen "sisters" stumble upon a refuge farm situation as they're trying to make it to the north. one of them ends up falling in love with the owner of the farm and wanting to stay and the other one ends up leaving to continue the journey. what really moved me was the ending. the woman who stays knows they'll never see each other again but still holds the dream that she and her friend will still end up living together one day. echoes the sad reality of friends drifting apart as societal expectations and the nuclear family makes girl bestie commune fantasies impossible 3
Angelo - 2 closeted gay high schoolers who have dreams of being artists. dreams end up being crushed because poverty and reality. depressing af but a great story and characters and emotions invoked.
However if you do read a few, here are my favs:
What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me? - Cody, a trans man, returns to his conservative midwestern small town and saves a dude from drowning. the dude and the dude's friends invite Cody to a bar and Cody feels like they're going to hate crime him, but they don't end up hate criming him. this was so sad and a twinge hopeful. i really enjoyed this one because it seemed realistic while portraying a niche but important experience/perspective
Till It and Keep It - dystopian future where the american south is completely fucked up from climate change and 2 women who are each others' chosen "sisters" stumble upon a refuge farm situation as they're trying to make it to the north. one of them ends up falling in love with the owner of the farm and wanting to stay and the other one ends up leaving to continue the journey. what really moved me was the ending. the woman who stays knows they'll never see each other again but still holds the dream that she and her friend will still end up living together one day. echoes the sad reality of friends drifting apart as societal expectations and the nuclear family makes girl bestie commune fantasies impossible 3
Angelo - 2 closeted gay high schoolers who have dreams of being artists. dreams end up being crushed because poverty and reality. depressing af but a great story and characters and emotions invoked.
January 21, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
The Best American Short Stories 2025.
Short stories are a hard sell, I get it.
Every once in awhile I do enjoy reading them; they're just a mouthful and you don't have to commit to a longer book if you don't like the story.
On the other hand, it's hard to find a short story you like.
In all these collections, I enjoy the stories for the writing and diversity and the sense of place but no one story resonated.
I did like how the author mentions in the preface how it was difficult to pick out a short story from all the ones she had to choose from.
How do you choose and on what basis?
The selection is based on the individual's personal experiences, likes, dislikes, interests and biases.
It made me wonder what stories Ms. Ng left out.
Short stories are a hard sell, I get it.
Every once in awhile I do enjoy reading them; they're just a mouthful and you don't have to commit to a longer book if you don't like the story.
On the other hand, it's hard to find a short story you like.
In all these collections, I enjoy the stories for the writing and diversity and the sense of place but no one story resonated.
I did like how the author mentions in the preface how it was difficult to pick out a short story from all the ones she had to choose from.
How do you choose and on what basis?
The selection is based on the individual's personal experiences, likes, dislikes, interests and biases.
It made me wonder what stories Ms. Ng left out.
February 7, 2026
This book has really made me a fan of the short stories genre! I look forward to reading future year editions.
I think the first 9 stories and the last 4 stories felt super strong to me. I was starting to lose interest in the middle.
My favorite story, surprisingly, was “Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges”. I think the concept of a long-term friendship ending out of the blue that you didn’t expect to end got me, and the concept felt very original. It was also just edgy enough that I was intrigued and impressed.
I also really loved the Masterclass story. It resonated me as a former pianist and current try-hard, the concept of wanting someone’s approval so bad who you know you will never get, and reflecting as you’re older that adults that are harsh to children are just jealous and unhappy with themselves.
Overall, highly recommend especially if you are in a reading funk!
I think the first 9 stories and the last 4 stories felt super strong to me. I was starting to lose interest in the middle.
My favorite story, surprisingly, was “Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges”. I think the concept of a long-term friendship ending out of the blue that you didn’t expect to end got me, and the concept felt very original. It was also just edgy enough that I was intrigued and impressed.
I also really loved the Masterclass story. It resonated me as a former pianist and current try-hard, the concept of wanting someone’s approval so bad who you know you will never get, and reflecting as you’re older that adults that are harsh to children are just jealous and unhappy with themselves.
Overall, highly recommend especially if you are in a reading funk!
May 6, 2026
Not my favorite collection but was relatively consistent in quality throughout, and I appreciated that there were some genre pieces interspersed in the selections.
Favorite Story: Seven Stories About Tammy
A: What would I do for you, what would you do for me?; abject naturalism; Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges; Yellow Tulips
B: Take Me to Kirkland; Drapetomania; The Masterclass; An Early Departure
C: Dominion; Time of the Preacher; Underwater; Angelo; Third Room
D: Unfathomably Deep; Maritza and Carmen; The Clean-Out; Aishwarya Rai
F: Till it and Keep It; What About This
Favorite Story: Seven Stories About Tammy
A: What would I do for you, what would you do for me?; abject naturalism; Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges; Yellow Tulips
B: Take Me to Kirkland; Drapetomania; The Masterclass; An Early Departure
C: Dominion; Time of the Preacher; Underwater; Angelo; Third Room
D: Unfathomably Deep; Maritza and Carmen; The Clean-Out; Aishwarya Rai
F: Till it and Keep It; What About This
July 5, 2026
My dad read this collection annually and then recounted every story to me in painstaking detail! PAINstaking. Now I miss his take on them!
Continuing the tradition by now reading them myself and imagining his reaction (“what the HELL? Come on!” would be a common one for anything a little too out there or absurdist).
Anyway, RIP to my dad Walter who would have really gotten a kick out of one of these stories being about cleaning out the house of a dead veteran named Walter!!!!! A bit too on the nose!!!!
Continuing the tradition by now reading them myself and imagining his reaction (“what the HELL? Come on!” would be a common one for anything a little too out there or absurdist).
Anyway, RIP to my dad Walter who would have really gotten a kick out of one of these stories being about cleaning out the house of a dead veteran named Walter!!!!! A bit too on the nose!!!!
April 18, 2026
I generally start reading The Best American Short Stories series each October, when they are published. Sadly, I don't always finish them. The 2023 edition was particularly bad, and that's the last one I reviewed. Last year's was better, but how many ways can I write that the art of writing short fiction is becoming endangered, just like good writing in general? (And no, AI won't help us; it's more likely to destroy fiction-writing altogether.)
The good news is that The Best American Short Stories 2025 is much better than last year's, and it's almost close to the heyday of the series, which was the 1990s and early 2000s. (The 1997 edition might my favorite.) There are a few boring or just plain bad stories, but many more are either mature, complete stories that don't take many risks, or risky stories that pay off--to varying degrees. I especially like, in order of appearance, "What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me?" by Emma Binder; "Unfathomably Deep" by Sophie Madeline Dess; "Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges" by Isabelle Fang; "Underwater" by Hannah Kingsley-Ma; and "Seven Stories about Tammy" by Elizabeth McCracken. Notice that each of those stories was written by a woman. I didn't even pay attention to that when I was compiling this personal best of The Best of . . . .
There are a remarkable number of well written very short stories in this book. Not short-shorts, by any means, but shorter than is usual with complete stories. By chance of the authors' last names, almost all of them appear at the very end of the book. Their briefness made this year's edition that much easier to complete, as there was not final slog to get through over weeks as there usually is for me come late winter/early spring.
The good news is that The Best American Short Stories 2025 is much better than last year's, and it's almost close to the heyday of the series, which was the 1990s and early 2000s. (The 1997 edition might my favorite.) There are a few boring or just plain bad stories, but many more are either mature, complete stories that don't take many risks, or risky stories that pay off--to varying degrees. I especially like, in order of appearance, "What Would I Do for You, What Would You Do for Me?" by Emma Binder; "Unfathomably Deep" by Sophie Madeline Dess; "Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges" by Isabelle Fang; "Underwater" by Hannah Kingsley-Ma; and "Seven Stories about Tammy" by Elizabeth McCracken. Notice that each of those stories was written by a woman. I didn't even pay attention to that when I was compiling this personal best of The Best of . . . .
There are a remarkable number of well written very short stories in this book. Not short-shorts, by any means, but shorter than is usual with complete stories. By chance of the authors' last names, almost all of them appear at the very end of the book. Their briefness made this year's edition that much easier to complete, as there was not final slog to get through over weeks as there usually is for me come late winter/early spring.
March 3, 2026
I love reading short stories and this collection is an excellent group of short stories. Each story is vivid and descriptive and sticks with you. I am so glad that I decided to read this collection and plan on reading the future collections for each year.
March 6, 2026
One of the things I like about reading The Best American Short Story collections is being able to see what stories are being published today. As expected, there were a couple stories I liked very much, a couple I didn't like at all, and many somewhere in between.
June 20, 2026
My favorite thing about short story compilations is that they seem like a compact show of literary skill. Each story offers a differing sense of excitement and individuality.
Additionally, there’s something so exciting about not knowing which stories will stick with me long-term. It’s nearly impossible to predict which stories I will carry going forward.
Additionally, there’s something so exciting about not knowing which stories will stick with me long-term. It’s nearly impossible to predict which stories I will carry going forward.
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