Established by the Dungannon Foundation in 1986 to honor living American writers who have made a significant contribution to the short story form, the annual Rea Award for the Short Story has become one of America's most prestigious literary prizes. Each year writers and editors, chosen as jurors by Michael Rea, nominate writers of short fiction to be honored by the award.

In The American Story, Rea has turned again to acclaimed jurors such as Joy Williams and Stanley Elkin and asked them to select the best stories by the illustrious winners - Cynthia Ozick, Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Bowles, Eudora Welty and Grace Paley - along with the best stories by prominent writers who have been nominated for the award - including Ann Beattie, Harold Brodkey, Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, Richard Ford, James Salter, and John Updike.

All told, this collection brings together the finest work by twenty-one of our foremost practitioners of contemporary short fiction.