Q & A

An interview with Heidi Pitlor, Series Editor.

1. How many stories do you read each year? How can a writer submit a story to be considered for the book?

I read thousands of short stories. I try to read every story published in an American or Canadian periodical and written by an American writer (or writers who have made the United States their home). Literary magazines and magazines that publish fiction are sent to me in droves. I don't consider stories that aren't published.

2. What do you look for when you're reading stories?

I look for solid writing, an ease with language. I want to be engaged with the characters and story lines, the settings or the language or ideas. When reading, I want to forget that I have to clean the kitchen or pay the bills. I also like to be surprised and moved in some way.

3. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Read as much as you can. Read things that are good, and try to figure out what makes them good. When something isn't good, try to understand why. Be brave and experiment with your writing. Try different things, and if, when you read your story aloud to yourself, it seems overdone or underdone or just plain silly in some way, try to make it better. Revise and revise again and revise yet again.

4. How do you get a short story published?

In the back of The Best American Short Stories is a list of American and Canadian magazines that publish fiction. Try to read a magazine before submitting a story to it, and submit only to those magazines that publish work that in some way could be considered similar to yours. For details on how to submit to a magazine, consult The Writers Market.

5. How do you choose the guest editor?

We seek guest editors who have achieved both commercial and critical success. We also seek a diversity of guest editors, from Garrison Keillor to Stephen King, so that the book will have a different flavor each year.