AMERICAN FICTION: The Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers

Anne Tyler served as judge to choose pieces here for special awards. For top honors, she's picked Florri McMillan's prismatic account of recovery from brain surgery, ""The Color of Scars."" Catherine Browder's ""Tigers"" took second prize: an assured, off-the-beat portrait of Cambodian refugees in America. Most all the stories here, excepting Cris Mazza's ""Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?,"" are realistic, head-on yet modest, of no great architectural venturesomeness. Qualities of individual voice, then, are the make-or-break point in this inaugural volume--a collection that exists to give exposure to writers who might not otherwise be heard. In that context, stories by Marcie Hershman, Susan S. Huckle, Joann Kobin, and Jane Ruiter stand out. Another short-fiction prize anthology, but this time with an unusual twist. A collection that holds its own.