Book excerpt: “As this fresh anthology proves, there’s a mix of writers and sensibilities that inhabit the literary Midwest as to make the term unpredictable.” —Stuart Dybek, MacArthur Fellow and author of The Coast of Chicago New Stories from the Midwest presents a collection of stories that celebrate an American region too often ignored in discussions about distinctive regional literature. The editors solicited nominations from more than three hundred magazines, literary journals, and small presses and narrowed the selection to nineteen authors. The stories, written by Midwestern writers or focusing on the Midwest, demonstrate that the quality of fiction from and about the heart of the country rivals that of any other region. Guest editor John McNally introduces the anthology, which features short fiction by Charles Baxter, Dan Chaon, Christopher Mohar, Rebecca Makkai, Lee Martin, Anthony Doerr, Roxanne Gay and others.