Bill Henderson is the founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize. He received the 2006 National Book Critic Circle's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. He is also the author of several memoirs, including All My Dogs: A Life. The founder of the Lead Pencil Club, Henderson lives in New York.
Henderson culls the year's best short stories, poetry and essays from lit mags and small presses and proves once again that the small venues are great sources for discovering new writers and staying current with the lions. Nam Le's hard-hitting "Cartagena" starts off the collection with a stark portrayal of a Colombian hit man in over his head. In Stephanie Powell Watts's "Unassigned Territory," a reluctant young black Jehovah's Witness finds herself searching for meaningful human connection while handing out Watchtowers in backwoods North Carolina. In Rick Bass's subtle and brilliant "Goats," two aspiring cattle barons roam the outskirts of Houston, buying scrawny calves while keeping tabs on an aging rancher suffering from dementia. Herb Golbert remembers Saul Bellow in "A Genius for Grief," while the posthumously published poem of Liam Rector, who committed suicide earlier this year, evokes a Pulitzer winner contemplating his failure to love ("That's where I truly fucked up./ I couldn't"). Steven Millhauser's "The Dome" offers a creepy if all-too-plausible view of the future in which communities seal themselves off beneath plastic domes. Hipsters and boomers alike will find something to appreciate in this powerhouse. (Dec.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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