The criticism levelled at last year's annual, the lack of any truly significant short story material, is again applicable to this year's selection which balances new and old names in a collection of good-but not outstanding- writing. From the less known literary quarterlies, to Harper's Bazaar, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, (these three leading among the quality popular magazines), there are stories by Jessamyn West, Eudora Welty, Marjorie K. Hawlings, Dorothy Canfield, Dorothy McCleary, Kay Boyle, with Irwin Shaw's Act of Faith a presumable prizewinner. On the whole, a major representation of some rather minor material- but the collection is an established annual (last year's sold 14,000) and always interesting as a cross section of the genre.