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The Best American Short Stories 2026

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Brief Description
Desire. Longing. Tenderness. Passion. In this year’s volume, love lies at the heart of the stories that guest editor Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “so good that they may be bad for you”: a sixteen-year-old moves into town and effortlessly falls in love with a classmate who... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Desire. Longing. Tenderness. Passion. In this year’s volume, love lies at the heart of the stories that guest editor Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “so good that they may be bad for you”: a sixteen-year-old moves into town and effortlessly falls in love with a classmate who he knows he must abandon; a grandmother stitches together the hurts of her past when she connects with her granddaughter in the present; a young lesbian attempts to launch her sexuality with comically mixed results.

In these stories and many more in this year’s volume, it’s easy to get lost in the yearning of characters who feel so heartbreakingly true and whose lives resonate with the weight of inevitability.

The Best American Short Stories 2026 includes: Aimee Bender • Nathan Englander • Louise Erdrich • Calvin Gimpelevich • Sigrid Nunez • George Saunders • Akhil Sharma • Vu Tran • Paul Yoon • and others

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780063399853

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 December 2026

Country: United States

Imprint: HarperCollins

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 17.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 308g

Pages: 352

About the Author

Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and many other awards. His other books include a sequel, The Committed, and the bestselling short story collection The Refugees. Other works are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial, as well as the children's books Chicken of the Sea and Simone. His last book was To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other. Nicole A. Lamy was the books editor of the Boston Globe, where she expanded books coverage, including a reader advice column called Match Book, which she subsequently wrote for the New York Times Book Review. In addition to book reviews and features she has written about food, photography, and parenting among other topics for the Globe, the Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, and the American Scholar.

Also by Nicole A. Lamy

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  • The Best American Short Stories 2025
    A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by celebrated bestselling author Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere, and series editor Nicole Lamy. The Best American Short Stories 2025 is part of the renowned Best American series, which was launched in 1915. It is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest...
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Also by Viet Thanh Nguyen

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  • The Sympathizer
    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2016 It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and...
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  • The Refugees
    In The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a...
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  • To Save and to Destroy
    From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer (now an HBO series) comes a moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms of otherness and a bold call for expansive political solidarity. Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California,...
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  • Nothing Ever Dies
    Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, National Book Award in Nonfiction A New York Times Book Review "The Year in Reading" Selection All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of the conflict Americans call the Vietnam...
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  • A Man of Two Faces
    'A triumphant memoir' Cathy Park Hong, author of MINOR FEELINGS, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize The highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, which has now sold over one million copies worldwide. With insight, humour, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces, Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life....
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  • A Man of Two Faces
    SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 'A triumphant memoir' Cathy Park Hong, author of MINOR FEELINGS, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize The highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, which has now sold over one million copies worldwide. With insight, humour, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two...
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