“You’ve Got To Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories That Held Them in Awe,” Ron Hansen

This anthology is like one of those fateful 20-something nights where you met a boyfriend, a best friend and got a lead on a job. It introduced me to Jim Shepard and Donald Barthelme. I often think of Amy Tan’s introduction of Molly Giles’s story, “Pie Dance.” Tan writes that upon hearing Giles read the story, she felt she didn’t yet have what it took to be a writer but she “also knew — as deeply as you can know something about yourself — that it would be worth a lifetime to try.” That’s one of the most genuine things I’ve ever heard a writer say about another writer.

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Alice Waters