The Best American Short Stories 2020

Some good stories, some okay stories. Actually, my favorite story, The Children by Andrea Lee, isn't even a story but is an excerpt from her recently published novel.

Although I wasn't blown away by any stretch, it served its purpose. I used the book as a companion to a group of classic stories that I used in a short story writing class I taught. This worked really well, even when I didn't care for the story. For pedagogical purposes, there was always something to learn from the story I chose for a given lesson, and it was valuable to read a new story alongside a classic.