The Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of the Small Presses 2023 Edition

by Bill Henderson (Editor)

Winner of High Honors from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pushcart Prize XLVII includes over 60 stories, poems and essays from dozens of small literary presses . In last year’s Pushcart Prize, editor Bill Henderson noted that the Pushcart Prize, “the small good thing, has evolved into an international prize drawing nominations from small presses around the globe.” As always, the selections are made by a distinguished panel of Guest Editors and hundreds of Contributing Editors. The list of authors selected and encouraged over the decades, is immense. (An index to previous volumes is included in each edition.)

The Pushcart Prize won the NBCC Sandroff Lifetime Achievement award, The Poets & Writers/ Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers citation and was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the seminal publications in American publishing history.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry

600 pages, Paperback

Published December 6, 2022

About the author

Bill Henderson (born April 5, 1941) is an American author, editor and publisher best known for his memoirs and the Pushcart Prize series.

Reviews

[Karen Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pushcart has long been my favorite anthology, but I got off to a bad start with this one and never recovered my enthusiasm. That isn't to say there weren't some great pieces, and a lot of excellent reading, but overall this wasn't my favorite year.
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense for comments on all fiction and non-fiction, and one poem that really stood out for me.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm...this was not my favorite edition of the Pushcart (which is my fave anthology every year). My top five were all fiction:

*Back, by Banzelman Guret
*Unknown, by Bennett Sims
*Half Spent, by Alice McDermott
*The Union Waltz, by Doug Crandall
*The Land of Uz, Aleyna Rentz

[Ace Boggess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually give these anthologies five stars. I often find them a mixed bag. This year's is different. The stories all held my interest, and the poems were delightful. An excellent volume.

[Gabriella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning started off with a punch, and then my worst fears for the year 2023 were confirmed in the content before The Cloud Lake Unicorn. Compared to the 2014 Pushcart a lot of the essays and stories within this version rely on the concept of death in order to say some kind of point. I know COVID and the Pandemic were still fresh on people's minds but it felt more like voices parroting the same events instead of creatives adding their unique voice and perspective. It's disheartening to watch the degradation of written work as it becomes more depressive and jaded within a mere nine years.

After The Cloud Lake Unicorn, the book went into a lull until THE KISS really picked up momentum and Unknown continued to carry it. Though while the momentum of my interest ebbed and flowed throughout this book I do give credit where it is due to the spacing of the works in this anthology. I did appreciate the breathing room the editor gives us from the heavy pieces with multiple short pieces so you're not overwhelmed with two long pieces with only one tiny poem to break them up.

Though I fear I now know what motherhood is like with the way this book had tested my patience. The highs and lows almost follow a three act structure which I found mildly infuriating. Usually I really enjoy these Pushcarts but I've found myself often checking to see when I'll be done with longer pieces of work in here. Despite how drawn out many of the pieces feel they have surprisingly very little to say on their own.

While I only finished this book in 11 days it feels to me like I've been reading this edition a lot longer than that. Most Pushcarts I prefer to savor like a fine wine, but this one was like drinking the sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Rough, coarse between my teeth with very little pleasure swallowing it down, just grateful for the small mouthfuls of wine between the grains. I hope the editions of the 2020s pick up soon in terms of individuality and distinct perspectives because that is what I love to read with these Pushcarts and 2023 only confirmed my fears with the current trend of this anthology. To me at least. I encourage everyone to read it for themselves and figure out their own opinions. You may like things I hated or hated things I liked and so on and so forth. But for people who came out of this edition having similar thoughts and feelings to what I wrote, you are not alone and we can only hope for better in the 2026 Pushcart (or write better ourselves, if we are able).

[Joseph Lerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I look forward to reading The Pushcart Prize every year, purchasing it on its release date, and am never disappointed. There's so much great stuff in here that I pace myself, read a bit every night, and often don't finish it for several weeks. I also read The Sun, One Story, Threepenny Review, and several other literary magazines throughout the year, and am delighted when I recognize stories, poems, and essays I've already read—and of course I read them again. The quality is higher and more consistent than that that of other annual anthologies (O. Henry Prize, Best American Short Stories, Best American SF&F, etc.) and a continual amazement to me that they mostly come from presses with small circulations run by unpaid staff. This is the 47th volume, nearly half a century. May it continue for at least a century more.

[Sumit · Rating 5 out of 5]

The consistently quality of these pieces is remarkable; the Pushcart curators really do a fantastic job. A great collection for anyone interested in improving their own writing or in just getting a sampler of some of the best US-based writers working today.

[claire shu · Rating 5 out of 5]

i recommend this to everyone i love and news flash, no one considers 600 pages a casual read! the pushcart anthologies draw you into new and exciting worlds (as if watching a movie), this book alone rekindled my love for fiction and reading.

[Passant Eltarek · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Steven Blaisdell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read and/or own seven or eight of the Pushcart volumes. Everyone knows these are consistently wonderful collections with often remarkable writing. (Full disclosure, I generally don't read the poetry, only the prose.) This edition - which I took out of the library, but am now going to have to buy - is to my memory (and here the intrasubjectivity cf time and its effects cannot be denied) the best I've read. Almost every piece is close to or spills into transcendentally good. Or maybe I was just needing top rank short fiction. No, I re-read some of the pieces - this volume is very, very good (except for one piece which is actually mind numbingly bad - when did mothering become for a certain demographic an excuse for nominally self deprecating but in reality narcissistic, self aggrandizing navel gazing....). Four stars, easy, with a possible half depending on my mood. Whatever - very, very good.