New sudden fiction : short-short stories from America and beyond / edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-368).

Responding to America's love for short-short stories, editors Robert Shapard and James Thomas searched thousands of books and magazines to select these sixty stories-each under 2,000 words, each with its own element of surprise-whether traditional, experimental, humorous, moving, or magical. In the process they discovered both new talents and a wealth of celebrated writers, among them Lan Samantha Chang, Jorge Luis Arzola, Aimee Bender, Romulus Linney, Yann Martel, Teolinda Gersao, Sam Shepard, and Tobias Wolff. Ha Jin narrates the arrest of two jokers by the Chinese state. Zdravka Evtimova conjures blood drops that can cure any disease. Ian Frazier writes public relations for crows. Juan Jose Millas leads an amnesiac husband to a darkened cathedral for a tryst with his own wife. Chuck Palahniuk tries his luck as a hospice escort. These tales told quickly offer pleasures long past their telling. Book jacket.

Other Persons / Juan Jose Millas -- A History of Everything, Including You / Jenny Hollowell -- The Raft / Peter Orner -- The Red Fox Fur Coat / Teolinda Gersäao -- Loving the Dead / Ronald F. Currie Jr. -- Powder / Tobias Wolff -- Water Names / Lan Samantha Chang -- Berlin Wall Piece / Sam Sheppard -- The Rememberer / Aimee Bender -- Homage / Nadine Gordimer -- Tomorrow's Bird / Ian Frazier -- The Palmist / Andrew Lam -- Blood / Zdravka Evtimova -- Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear / Joyce Carol Oates -- Footnote / Romulus Linney -- We Ate the Children Last / Yann Martel -- My Lawrence / Claudia Smith -- Feeling Good, Feeling Fine / George Garrett -- Pompeii / Leslie Pietrzyk -- Ma, a Memoir / Lynn Freed -- Essential Things / Jorge Luis Arzola -- Seven Pieces of Severance / Robert Olen Butler -- The Wine Doctor / Frederick Adolf Paola -- In Reference to Your Recent Communications / Tessa Brown -- Following the Notes / Pia Z. Ehrhardt -- The Minimalist / Stacey Richter -- I Shot the Sheriff / Toure -- Before the Train and After / Katherine Nolte -- Rosa Blanca / Barry Gifford -- The Puppies / Dean Paschal -- Before and Again / Larissa Amir -- A Bad Joke / Ha Jin -- Consumed / Steve Amick -- Why Men Quit: An Intellectual Inquiry / Benjamin Alire Sâaenz -- Delicate Touch / Stephanie Waxman -- Country Miles / Robert King -- Scroll / Roy Kesey -- Swimming for Shore / Chrissy Kolaya -- Mud / Geoffrey Forsyth -- Feelers / John Gould -- The Party / Elizabeth Berg -- My Kid's Dog / Ron Hansen -- Power Lines / John McNally -- Incarnations of Burned Children / David Foster Wallace -- Inclusions / Elizabeth McBride -- Good, Brother / Peter Markus -- Reply All / Robin Hemley -- Escort / Chuck Palahniuk -- The Gold Lunch / Ron Carlson -- Doughnut Shops and Doormen / Kimberly Kepa'a Tubania -- A Piece of Sky / Ronald Frame -- Stolen Chocolates / Ursula Hegi -- Juan the Cell Phone Salesman / Deb Olin Unferth -- Nap Time / Tom Franklin -- Audio Tour / Patricia Marx -- Paper Slippers / Leelila Strogov -- Crossroad / Kirk Nesset -- Determinants / Gerald Locklin -- How I Left Ned / Sherrie Flick -- Moscow / Steve Almond.