We Are the Stories We Tell The Best Short Stories by American Women Since 1945

A collection of 26 of the finest stories by the finest women writers tocome out of the U.S. and Canada in the past 50 years. Authors include Ann Beattie, Ann Tyler, Tama Janowitz and Alice Walker.

WENDY MARTIN is chair of the Department of English at Claremont Graduate University. She is also the editor of More Stories We Tell (available from Pantheon). Martin founded and has continued to edit Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and is Professor of American Literature and American Studies at Claremont Graduate University. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Acknowledgments // xi

Introduction // 5

Mary McCarthy
THE BLACKGUARD
(1946) // 18

Eudora Welty
NO PLACE FOR YOU, MY LOVE
(1951) // 18

Flannery O'Connor
A VIEW OF THE WOODS
(1957) // 38

Grace Paley
AN INTEREST IN LIFE
(1959 // 61

Paule Marshall
BROOKLYN
(1961) // 77

Joyce Carol Oates
WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
(1966) // 98

Toni Cade Barmbara
MY MAN BOVANNE
(1971) // 116

Leslie Marmon Silko
YELLOW WOMAN
(1974) // 123

Margaret Atwood
GIVING BIRTH
(1977) // 134

Anne Tyler
HOLDING THINGS TOGETHER
(1977) // 150

Alice Munro
ROTAL BEATINGS
(1977) // 164

Jayne Anne Phillips
SOUVENIR
(1979) // 188

Maxine Hong Kingston
ON DISCOVERY
(1980) // 204

Alice Walker
THE ABORTION
(1980) // 207

Bobbie Ann Mason
SHILOH
(1982) // 218

Tama Janowitz
THE SLAVES IN NEW YORK
(1984) // 234

Susan Minot
LUST
(1984) // 244

Sandra Cisneros
HARIS, A RICE SANDWICH, HIPS
(1984) // 255

Ann Beattie
JANUS
(1985) // 264

Ursula K. Le Guin
SHE UNNAMES THEM
(1985) // 270

Francine Prose
OTHER LIVES
(1985) // 274

Louise Erdrich
FLEUR
(1986) // 289

Mary Gordon
THE DANCING PARTY
(1986) // 304

Becky Birtha
IN THE LIFE
(1987) // 310

The Authors // 323

The Editor // 334