The Best American Short Stories 1989

The Best American Short Stories 1989, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Shannon Ravenel and by guest editor Margaret Atwood.

In her introductory essay titled "Reading Blind" guest editor Margaret Atwood writes:

I’ve spoken of "the voice of the story," which has become a sort of catchall phrase; but by it I intend something more specific: a speaking voice, like the singing voice in music, that moves not across space, across the page, but through time. Surely every written story is, in the final analysis, a score for voice. Those little black marks on the page mean nothing without their re-translation into sound.(xiv)

At the conclusion of her essay outlining how she made her selections she state "From listening to the stories of others, we learn to tell our own." (xxiii)