xvii, 393 p. ; 22 cm. Contents: Old forest / Peter Taylor -- Emerald / Donald Barthelme -- Shawl / Cynthia Ozick -- A working day / Robert Coover -- Cathedral / Raymond Carver -- Exchange value / Charles Johnson -- Deaths of distant friends / John Updike -- Sur: a summary report of the Yelcho Expedition to the Antarctic, 1909-10 / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Nairobi / Joyce Carol Oates -- In the red room / Paul Bowles -- Sarah Cole: a type of love story / Russell Banks -- Fellow-creatures / Wright Morris -- Gryphon / Charles Baxter -- Health / Joy Williams -- Way we live now / Susan Sontag -- Things they carried / Tim O'Brien -- Dédé / Mavis Gallant -- Helping / Robert Stone -- Management of grief / Bharati Mukherjee -- Meneseteung / Alice Munro. Responsibility: selected and with an introduction by Shannon Ravenel.