BASS 2013: "As a whole this collection is wildly divergent and entertaining, and each story is cultivated with a keen eye for voice and character." - Booklist "Plenty of great stories...For the reader whose consumption of short stories doesn't extend much beyond this yearly collection, the latest delivers the goods...The collection includes a number of writers widely regarded as masters of the form." - Kirkus BASS 2012: "A typically strong selection ... that should please readers who love the traditional pleasures of storytelling, through voices that are thoroughly contemporary." - Kirkus "The best short stories are small only when measured by the number of pages. Editor Tom Perrotta...assembles a stellar collection of 20 stories that create their own worlds in 20 pages or less." -USA Today BASS 2011: "Children and their parents feature prominently, if predictably, in this year's collection, which includes stories by three Pulitzer Prize-winners....Though many of the names here are familiar, this powerful new work re-establishes these authors' command of the form." -Publisher's Weekly "Another stellar selection from an anthology that has sustained high standards for 35 years..Each one of these stories could establish itself as some reader's favorite." - Kirkus , STARRED BASS past praise: "Russo has compiled a collection of consistently entertaining fiction that engages itself with this world (rather than conjuring its own world or reducing the world of fiction to words)... with even the few of the newsstand magazines that publish fiction publishing less of it, the stories themselves seem as vital as ever. Any reader will likely discover a new favorite writer here, or more." - Booklist, STARRED
"...the anthology's chorus of 20 stories...are by turns playful, ironic, somber and meditative...the authors generally are writers with proven track records...The anthology feels rooted in the real world...[and is], more uniformly satisfying than some "Best" outings have been..." - The Wall Street Journal
