edited by Bill Henderson with the Pushcart Prize editors ; introduction by Russell Banks ; poetry editors: William Heyen, Elizabeth Spires ; essays editor: Anthony Brandt
Introduction / Russell Banks -- The day I met Buddy Holly / Kim Herzinger -- On the Zeedijk / Richard Watson -- A letter / Albert Goldbarth -- Typical / Padgett Powell -- Rust / Josip Novakovich -- Vital signs / Natalie Kusz -- Armageddon : Private Gabriel Calvin Wojahn, 1900-1918 / David Wojahn -- My mother and Mitch / Clarence Major -- cave / Michael Collier -- I'm having trouble with my relationship / Leonard Michaels -- Astronauts / Wally Lamb -- Through and through / Joseph Geha -- Austerity in Vermont / T.R. Hummer -- Heaven / David Lehman -- Field of fire / Will Baker -- center of the story / Lydia Davis -- Hospice / Lydia Hull -- motiveless malignancy / Barry Callaghan -- Zoe / Molly Best Tinsley -- What I wanted most of all / Daniel Hayes -- Hopkins and Whitman / Lynne McMahon -- Rush hour / Laurie Sheck -- Above the tree line / Kathy Mangan -- Installations / Robin Hemley -- Snuff dippers / Shay Youngblood -- On the life and death of Stan Laurel's son / Walter Pavlich -- Hide-and-go-seek / Judith Kitchen -- middle of nowhere / Kent Nelson -- Crazy life / Lou Mathews -- Miller Canyon trail no. 106 / Michael Bowden -- Believer's flood / Richard Currey -- Murphy's angel / Thomas E. Kennedy -- For Anna Mae Aquash whose spirit is present here and in the dappled stars / Joy Harjo -- What the blue jay said / Frankie Paino -- More room / Judith Ortiz Cofer -- Francis : brother of the universe / Rodney Hale Jones -- Dying in Massachusetts / Donald W. Baker -- Listening / David Mura -- At the I.G.A. : Franklin, New Hampshire / Jane Kenyon -- With Pat Boone in the pentlands / Ken Chowder -- Castrato / Kenneth Rosen -- Miles weeping / Michael Waters -- Aliens / Sharman Apt Russell -- Because / Christopher Merrill -- Cambrian night / James Solheim -- Post-Larkin triste / Mary Karr -- What is beyond us / Karen Fish -- Broken hearts / Sarah Glasscock -- David of Michelangelo / Dennis Vannatta -- Captivity : the minks / Toi Derricotte -- Apologues of winter light / Christopher Buckley -- Wejumpka / Rick Bass -- Ascension on Fire Island / Henri Cole -- vacant lot / Gibbons Ruark -- My lord bag of rice / Carol Bly -- For the missing in action / John Balaban -- Dust (Ars Poetica) / Allen Grossman -- battle of Manila / Laura Kalpakian -- Special mention -- Presses featured in the Pushcart Prize Editions (1976-1990) -- Contributing small presses -- Index -- Contributors' notes