Gotham Writers' Workshop Fiction Gallery: Exceptional Short Stories Selected by New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School

Lots of different writers here, from old classics like Hawthorne and Checkov, to modern classics like Cheever, Frank O'Connor and Carver, to new guys I never heard of til this book. It's probably tilted somewhat to the newer writers but that was fine with me. Some of the stand-outs imho, in no particular order: Brownies - ZZ Packer First Confession - Frank O'Connor Orientation - Daniel Orozco The Next Building I Plan to Bomb - Charles Baxter. There were many other worthies but those stood out and the authors were new to me. Overall I would say they were going for readable, interesting stories by a wide range of authors. The book breaks the stories out into life phases - Starting Out, Longings, Those We Know, The Job, Sunset, and at the end it has some interviews with a couple of the authors. Here's hoping they come out with another collection.

I am studying creative writing and this book, coupled with the Gotham Writer's Workshop text, provides me with valuable insight and direction. The stories in Gotham Writers Workshop Fiction are varied enough to teach a range of skills for the beginning writer.

Gotham Writers' Workshop's _Fiction Gallery: Exceptional Short Stories_ is a complete toolbox of writing techniques. Masters of the art of fiction--from Hawthorne to Chopin to Carver to Borges to ZZ Packer--illustrate craft in this well-chosen sampling of fictional works. Interviews with authors about their processes add another dimension. _Fiction Gallery_ is an affordable, accessible, and comprehensive collection. Dr. Denise Low, professor of creative writing

Yes, the short story is alive and well. It is no longer a medium of popular entertainment but it lives on in numerous small literary magazines and anthologies, in devoted readers, and in a rising generation of great new short story writers. This collection includes a wide range of styles and voices, but all are brilliantly done, accessible and engaging. Many of the newer short story voices are included as well as a few of the old masters, such as Hawthorne and Chekhov. Some of the writers are not afraid to break the rules--there are stories with omniscient point of view and stories that span several decades--but these authors know what they are doing and the stories work--brilliantly. The short stories are grouped into sections based on the life cycle, with short and helpful introductory comments. The book includes delightful short interviews with three of the authors, which will be especially appealing to the authors among us. The Fiction Gallery is one of the finest collections of short stories I have ever read. I recommend it most highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

I have taken a class at the Gotham Writers' Workshop, and I highly recommend it. My former teacher, Thom Didato, is one of the editors of this collection. The purpose of this book is to give the reader (writer) an overview of the short story. Sure, there are countless other anthologies of short stories out there, but those either reprint the same ones over and over, or they cater to specialized markets. As it says in the introduction, "We've taken great pains to select stories that the general public will find gripping and entertaining." In other words, these stories qualify as literary fiction, but they are not pretentious or boring. There are a couple of classic stories here, by such authors as Carver, Chekov, and Hawthorne; but it is mostly comprised of contemporary stories that are only a few years old. This book is a valuable guide to the state of the modern short story.