“Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” copyright © 1985 by Russell Banks from Success Stories by Russell Banks. Copyright © 1986 by Russell Banks. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. This story originally appeared in The Missouri Review.
“The School” copyright © 1981 by Donald Barthelme, permission of the Wylie Agency.
“The Hermit’s Story” copyright by Rick Bass.
“The Fireman’s Wife” copyright © 1989 by Richard Bausch. Used by permission of the author. The story originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly.
“The Disappeared” from A Relative Stranger by Charles Baxter. Copyright © 1990 by Charles Baxter. Reprinted with permission by the author.
“Silver Water” from Come to Me by Amy Bloom. Copyright © 1993 by Amy Bloom. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Caviar” from Greasy Lake and Other Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle, copyright © 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
“The Ceiling” from Things That Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier, copyright © 2002 by Kevin Brockmeier. Used by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
“Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” copyright by Robert Olen Butler. Used by permission of the author.
“Never Marry a Mexican” from Woman Hollering Creek. Copyright © 1991 by Sandra Cisneros. Published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., and originally in hardcover by Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York. All rights reserved.
“Relief” from The Ugliest House in the World by Peter Ho Davies. Copyright © 1997 by Peter Ho Davies. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
“After Rosa Parks” by Janet Desaulniers. Reprinted from What You’ve Been Missing, 2004, University of Iowa Press, 97–116.
“Nilda” first published in The New Yorker and reprinted by permission of Junot Díaz and Aragi Inc.
“The Caretaker” by Anthony Doerr, reprinted with the permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr. Copyright © 2002 by Anthony Doerr. First appeared in The Paris Review, issue 159, Fall 2001. All rights reserved.
“We Didn’t” by Stuart Dybek, reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc. Copyright © 2004 by Stuart Dybek.
“Twilight of the Superheroes” from Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg. Copyright © 2006 by Deborah Eisenberg. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
“Communist” from Rock Springs copyright © 1987 by Richard Ford. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
“Tiny, Smiling Daddy,” reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill. Copyright © 1997 by Mary Gaitskill. All rights reserved.
“Winners on the Pass Line” from Winners on the Pass Line and Other Stories copyright © 1985 by Dagoberto Gilb. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Wickedness” from Nebraska, copyright © 1989 by Ron Hansen. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
“A Real Doll” from The Safety of Objects by Amy M. Homes. Copyright © 1990 by Amy M. Homes. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
“How Far She Went” from How Far She Went by Mary Hood. Reprinted by permission of University of Georgia Press.
“Car Crash While Hitchhiking” from Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson. Copyright © 1992 by Denis Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
“Marie” from Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones. Copyright © 1992 by Edward P. Jones. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
“The Pugilist at Rest” from The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones. Copyright © 1993 by Thom Jones. By permission of Little, Brown and Co.
“Girl” from At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid. Copyright © 1983 by Jamaica Kincaid. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
“A Temporary Matter” from Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Copyright © 1999 by Jhumpa Lahiri. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
“Territory” copyright © 1983 by David Leavitt, permission of the Wylie Agency.
“Stone Animals” from Magic for Beginners, copyright © 2005 by Kelly Link. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas” from The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Co., 1992). Copyright © 1992 by Reginald McKnight. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Secret Goldfish” from The Secret Goldfish, copyright © 2004 by David Means. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Lust” from Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot. Copyright © 1989 by Susan Minot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
“Boys” from Demonology by Rick Moody. Copyright © 2001 by Rick Moody. By permission of Little, Brown and Co.
“The Management of Grief” from The Middleman and Other Stories, copyright © 1988 by Bharati Mukherjee. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
“Female Trouble” from Female Trouble: Stories, copyright © 2005 by Antonya Nelson. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Translation” by Joyce Carol Oates from Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Selected Early Stories, Ontario Review Press, 1993. Copyright by Ontario Review, Inc.
“The Things They Carried” from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Copyright © 1990 by Tim O’Brien. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
“Orientation” copyright © 1994 by Daniel Orozco. Used by permission of the author. This story originally appeared in The Seattle Review.
“Pilgrims” from How to Breathe Underwater: Stories by Julie Orringer, copyright © 2003 by Julie Orringer. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
“Brownies” from Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, copyright © 2003 by ZZ Packer. Reprinted by permission of author.
“The Half-Skinned Steer” by E. Annie Proulx, reprinted with the permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from Close Range: Wyoming Stories by E. Annie Proulx. Copyright © 1999 by Dead Line Ltd. All rights reserved.
“The Cavemen in the Hedges” by Stacey Richter, reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc. Copyright © 2001 by Stacey Richter.
“Sea Oak” by George Saunders appears in Pastoralia published by Riverhead Books, 2000, and first appeared in The New Yorker.
“My Shape” from Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories, copyright © 2004 by Joan Silber. Reprinted by permission of author.
“Tony’s Story” copyright © 1981 Leslie Marmon Silko, permission of the Wylie Agency.
“The Way We Live Now” first published in The New Yorker, November 24, 1986. Copyright © 1986 by Susan Sontag, permission of the Wylie Agency.
“Two Kinds” from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, copyright © 1989 by Amy Tan. Used by permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
“Xmas, Jamaica Plain” by Melanie Rae Thon included in First, Body. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
“Nineteen Fifty-five” from You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down, copyright © 1981 Alice Walker, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
“The Rest of Her Life” by Steve Yarbrough from Veneer, 1998, University of Missouri Press.