Best New American Voices 2000

This is a collection that will definitely appeal to short story enthusiasts and convert all others. The anthology was a gift and I was most pleasantly surprised--I read the whole collection in a day. Like most people, I don't have much spare time to read, but the little time I do find will be spent re-reading these stories and finding comparable short story collections. What a gem of an anthology.

BNAV2, as my friends and I like to call it, is a terrific collection of stories from a bunch of people I've never heard of (and some that I wouldn't care to meet, no offense you lifetime prisoners). A few tales miss the mark, but most are quite good, particularly Maile Meloy's "Tome," about an unlikely hostage situation in Montana. It's nice to escape from the usual short story writer suspects and find a new batch of talented authors. Congratulations to Tobias Wolff for his astute selections.