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The Pushcart Prize L: Best of the Small Presses 2026 Edition
624 pages, Paperback
Published December 2, 2025
About the author
Bill Henderson
119 books19 followersBill Henderson (born April 5, 1941) is an American author, editor and publisher best known for his memoirs and the Pushcart Prize series.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 17, 2026
My two strong favorites:
Rich Strike by Christie Hodgen (apparently I also read and loved her Elegies for the Brokenhearted back in 2016)
Goodbye, Raymond Carver by Jane Delury
Other standouts:
Desperate Times, Desperate Crimes by Lou Mathews
On Arrival by Sarah C. Harwell
Countdown by Anthony Marra
An Essay About Coyotes by Ryan van Meter
The Department of Everything by Stephen Akey, about being a reference librarian in the 80's
Devotion by Michael Mark (a poem)
Don't Bleed on the Artwork by Wendy Brenner (who is also a Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction winner)
Rich Strike by Christie Hodgen (apparently I also read and loved her Elegies for the Brokenhearted back in 2016)
Goodbye, Raymond Carver by Jane Delury
Other standouts:
Desperate Times, Desperate Crimes by Lou Mathews
On Arrival by Sarah C. Harwell
Countdown by Anthony Marra
An Essay About Coyotes by Ryan van Meter
The Department of Everything by Stephen Akey, about being a reference librarian in the 80's
Devotion by Michael Mark (a poem)
Don't Bleed on the Artwork by Wendy Brenner (who is also a Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction winner)
April 9, 2026
The Pushcart anthology continues to be one of my favorite annual reading experiences. It’s a cinder block of a book, collecting some of the most compelling short fiction, essay, and poetry published by small presses in the last year or so.
It tends to be a bellwether for culture and the state of contemporary literature and this year’s edition of course continues to be marked by the shadow of Covid and the hideous regime. In the last few years the anthology has also been turning inward. Many of its stories, essays, and poems are concerned with those who make stores, essays, and poems which, as the world of contemporary literature condenses, seems only natural. Bands playing for the other bands at the bar. There is universality here too though: stories about falling in and out of love, poems about nature and food, meditations on grief.
Finishing the Pushcart anthology is always a little like walking out of a fog, or traveling home after an extended hospital stay. I’m readjusting to the outside light and trying to figure out what’s changed out here. I also have to figure out what to read next.
It tends to be a bellwether for culture and the state of contemporary literature and this year’s edition of course continues to be marked by the shadow of Covid and the hideous regime. In the last few years the anthology has also been turning inward. Many of its stories, essays, and poems are concerned with those who make stores, essays, and poems which, as the world of contemporary literature condenses, seems only natural. Bands playing for the other bands at the bar. There is universality here too though: stories about falling in and out of love, poems about nature and food, meditations on grief.
Finishing the Pushcart anthology is always a little like walking out of a fog, or traveling home after an extended hospital stay. I’m readjusting to the outside light and trying to figure out what’s changed out here. I also have to figure out what to read next.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews