Lee K. Abbott, The Talk Talked Between Worms (All Things, All at Once)
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues (Going to Meet the Man)
Matt Bell, The Collectors
Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker
William Faulkner, The Bear
Barry Hannah, Hey, Do You Have the Time, The News, My Cigs, My Face? (Bats Out of Hell)
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Michelle Herman, Auslander (A New and Glorious Life)
Edward P. Jones, Old Boys, Old Girls (All Aunt Hagar's Children)
Shane Jones, Light Boxes
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
Kyle Minor, A Day Meant to Do Less (In the Devil's Territory)
Cynthia Ozick, Rosa (The Shawl)
Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Collected Stories)
Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain (Close Range)
Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus
Richard Russo, The Whore's Child
Christine Schutt, Florida
Jane Smiley, Good Will (Ordinary Love & Good Will)
Peter Taylor, The Old Forest
John Updike, Rabbit Remembered (Licks of Love)
David Foster Wallace, Good Old Neon (Oblivion)
Eudora Welty, Summer Wedding
Tobias Wolff, The Barracks Thief
Richard Yates, The Easter Parade