This marks the third edition of American Fiction．While

several changes have been made，including our publisher and a

minor change in our title，AF’s intent remains the same as it

was when we started three years ago：to present the best of

unpublished short stories，by both new and emerging writers,

through our national contest．Our growth—from fifteen

stories in 1987 to nineteen in 1988 to twenty-four this year-is

testimony of that commitment．

This year we are again fortunate to have as Guest Judge one

of the country s foremost writers，Anne Tyler．Ms．Tyler

selected the three prize—winning stories and wrote the Intro’

duction．In words which echo those of the late Raymond

Carver’AF s 1988 Guest Judge，Ms．Tyler has written of this

Year’s collection．“This leads me to wonder whether the

Present-tense，cut—and-run approach IS losing popularity．Certainlv none of the twenty-four is what I d call minimalist．

Mavbe the American short story is returning to its traditions．”we hope that it has，indeed，returned．In that spirit of

continuity,we’d like to dedicate this book tO the person who，

more than any other current short story writer,both estab—

lished itS unique contemporary form and linked that torm to

its traditional heritage--namely,Raymond Carver.

We’d like to congratulate this year’s prize-winners：the

$1000 First Prize goes to Florri McMillan for“The Color of

Scars”：the$500 Second Prize to Catherine Browder for

“Tigers”：and the$250 Third Prize to David Mason for

Pulandbedamned Point．