Start the clock.
I'm notorious for taking years to read these anthologies. We are 15 books in to this series starting with 1978 back in 2008.
Back when I started this project, I worked at a newspaper in Virginia. Two weeks ago, I voluntarily left the newspaper (my second home for 19 years). It was a difficult decision, but a move that was necessary. I'm sure in the years and posts to come, I will dive deeper into everything surrounding my departure. These stories have a way of prying out details over time - this is the purpose of this project - it's a bit of therapy.
I've written several times about the various stages of my life and here we are at another. It'll be very interesting to see what develops.
So, here we are, finally reading the BASS 1992. I loved the 90s and the editor of this volume, in his introduction, touches on one of the reasons why I found that decade so special.
Robert Stone made his first appearance in The Best American Series back in 1998 which I read in 2012. I found his introduction to this volume a little rough - of course perhaps I am out of practice (reading that is). The following passage did catch me though.
"In their variety, these stories reflect what is probably the most significant development in late-twentieth-century American fiction, the renewal and revitalization of the realist mode, which has been taken up by a new generation of writers. This represents less a "triumph" of realism than the obviation of old arguments about the relationship between life and language. As of 1992, American writers seem ready to accept traditional forms without self-consciousness in dealing with the complexity of the world around them."
This final paragraph from the introduction nails it perfectly for me. It's why I found love for the short story in the early 90s.
During my time at Norwich University, I worked as a work study student in the library. I was assigned to the periodicals department where I received incoming magazines and journals. I cataloged the new arrivals and at times, when needed, I assisted in the weeding of older journals from the shelves. Because Norwich was associated with Vermont College at this time, we received copies of important literary journals. When I found a few minutes of down-time between my duties, I would flip through these journals, journals with odd sounding names, Black Warrior Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Missouri Review, Paris Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review just to name a few. I can't readily recall what story or what journal pulled me in, but I was hooked. It was in these journals that the stories I am now reading in the BASS are resurfacing. No doubt, I will run across one or several that seem all too familiar...the years softening my recollection of having actually reading it so many years ago.
Now, the publications and number of stories featured in BASS 1992.
Ploughshares - 1
Story - 3
New England Review - 1
The Atlantic Monthly - 1
Harper's Magazine - 1
The Southern Review - 1
Fiction International - 1
Black Warrior Review - 1
American Short Fiction - 1
The New Yorker - 9
So, as you can see, and it shouldn't come as a surprise, stories from The New Yorker heavily outweigh the others.
Stone has this to say about the stories from that publication.
"The large number of New Yorker inclusions I think results from the fact that while The New Yorker is still able to attract first-rate submissions, the days are past when there was such a thing as a "New Yorker story."
Well, lets see about that. I'm very excited to start this new journey - both in my life and with this volume.
The 90s were my decade - I have faith that these stories will hold up.
Onward!
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