Here are the new covers and guest editors for the 2026 Best American Series.

For decades, Mariner Books has stewarded The The Best American Series®, a literary institution that began in 1915 with Best American Short Stories, to your bookshelves. But just in case you’re stumbling upon it for the first time: Each book in the annual series showcases the best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year (in this case, 2025) in its particular category: short stories, essays, mystery and suspense, science and nature writing, science fiction and fantasy, or food and travel writing. Each volume’s series editor selects notable work from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites, and a special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then makes the final selection for the anthology.

This year’s anthologies will be published on October 20; each volume features cover art by Dutch abstract artist Wouter Tjeenk Willink. Here are those covers, along with information about the editors for each anthology:

The Best American Short Stories® 2026

Guest editor: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Series editor: Nicole A. Lamy