Twenty-five years ago, Shannon Ravenel started a short story anthology that, in many ways, defined who Algonquin was in those early days. And over time, New Stories from the South has published the work of now well-known writers, including James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus, Barbara Kingsolver, John Sayles, Joshua Ferris, and Abraham Verghese and nurtured the talents of many others, including Larry Brown, Jill McCorkle, Brock Clarke, Lee Smith, and Daniel Wallace. This twenty-fifth volume defines who we are now as we reach out beyond the South to one of the most acclaimed short story writers of our day. Guest editor Amy Hempel admits, "I've always had an affinity for writers from the South," and in her choices, she's identified the most inventive, heartbreaking, and chilling stories being written by Southerners all across the country.

A recipient of awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the United States Artists Foundation, and the Academy of Arts and Letters, Amy Hempel is the author of Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage and the coeditor of Unleashed. Her stories have appeared in Harper's, GQ Vanity Fair, and many other publications and have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Her Collected Stories was named by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2007. In 2008 she won the REA Award for the Short Story, and in 2009 she received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. She teaches creative writing at Harvard University and Bennington College.