Best of Times, Worst of Times Contemporary American Short Stories from the New Gilded Age

"Stories by today's most captivating writers - Jhumpa Lahiri, Susan Straight, ZZ Packer, Aimee Bender and more - focus a personal lens on race relations, gender issues, Hurricane Katrina and our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." (Ms. Magazine) "Best of Times, Worst of Times is particularly powerful in the range of social and political issues it addresses through fiction; its a collection designed to provoke critical reading, discussion and writing. The editors provide a broad representation of current fiction from familiar names as well as up-to-the-minute offerings from new American writers; in the process, they illustrate the extraordinary range of stylistic practices that shape contemporary fiction." - Amy Tucker,author of The Illustration of the Master: Henry James and the Magazine Revolution "Topical yet timeless, this collection speaks tellingly and provocatively to issues prevalent in todays world and to readers struggling to make sense of these volatile times. The expansive stories are compelling and necessary, powerful and empathetic; they reveal in equal measure the daunting possibilities, stunning successes, and abysmal failures along side the ordinary, the contradictory, and the hopeful, all at play within the imaginative realm of visionary and expert short story writers who understand the complexities of contemporary life. They have produced a much-needed, wide-ranging, valuable, and unique collection." - Thadious M. Davis,University of Pennsylvania

Wendy Martin is Vice-Provost and George and Ronya Kozmetsky Professor of Transdisciplinary Studies and Professor of American Literature and American Studies at Claremont Graduate University. She is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Cambridge Introduction to Emily Dickinson (2007), We Are The Stories We Tell (1990), More Stories We Tell (2004), and The Art of the Short Story (2006).
Cecelia Tichi is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English and American Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University. Her books include Jazz Age Cocktails, Gilded Age Cocktails, What Would Mrs. Astor Do? The Essential Guide to the Manners and Mores of the Gilded Age and Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America. Her mystery fiction includes the "Val and Roddy DeVere Gilded" series, set in the Gilded Age.