Playboy's College Fiction: A Collection of 21 Years of Contest Winners

by Alice K. Turner (Compiler), Thom Jones (Foreword by)

For more than 50 years Playboy has published fiction by some of the biggest names in the field–Steinbeck, García Márquez, Gordimer, Bellow, Smiley–the list goes on and on. And since 1986, the magazine has sponsored its now famous College Fiction Contest, which annually receives thousands of entries from aspiring writers who seek the top publication in the magazine’s October issue. Winners have represented schools large and small, public and private, from all over North America – the universities of Alabama, Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Southern California; San Francisco State, Rutgers, M.I.T., Penn, Brown, Columbia, West Virginia’s Potomac State College, and Trent University in Ontario. In some cases winners have bested runners-up, who have gone on to achieve literary fame and fortune, such as A.M. Homes and Pam Houston.
The most important aspect of this diverse collection of stories is the one attribute that they all have in each is a stellar example of the short form written by an author who was still in school. Readers of fiction, writers of fiction, and teachers of fiction will find this entertaining and satisfying compendium to be unique and unrivaled, and an important addition to any bookshelf of contemporary literature. Enhancing this volume will be updated information on each the stories behind the writing of their stories, and how winning the College Fiction Contest has influenced their lives.

Genres: Erotica, Short Stories

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2007

Reviews

[Michael Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic anthology.

[Raul Clement · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really strong for an anthology. I've read 60% of the stories, which is more than I usually read in an anthology, and I enjoyed all of them. Four or five were flat-out great. The stories span 20 years of contest winners, arranged chronologically, and even the ones from the eighties seem more attuned to life today than 95% of the stuff in journals. They were hip in that good way: funny, contemporary, and weird without being shallow.

[Lee Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given that I was on the reading committee for the Playboy College Fiction Contest for many years, of course I'd have to say I love this collection. It's always impressive to see the amount of talent in the MFA programs.