Take a look at this new title from Sheed and Ward: The Best American Catholic Short Stories: A Sheed & Ward Collection. The table of contents:

• "Old Red"
  Caroline Gordon

• "The Presence"
  Caroline Gordon

• "The Peach Stone"
  Paul Horgan

• "Lions, Harts, Leaping Does"
  J.F. Powers

• "The Devil in the Desert"
  Paul Horgan

• "Emmanuele, Emmanuele"
  Caroline Gordon

• "The Displaced Person"
  Flannery O’Connor

• "Dawn"
  J.F. Powers

• "Silent Retreats"
  Phil Deaver

• "Keepsakes"
  Jon Hassler

• "Resident Priest"
  Jon Hassler

• "Geneseo"
  Phil Deaver

• "Playland"
  Ron Hansen

• "The Devil and Irv Chernische"
  T. Coraghessan Boyle

• "The Rich Brother"
  Tobias Wolff

• "Mrs. Cassidy’s Last Year"
  Mary Gordon

• "The Whore’s Child"
  Richard Russo

• "Died and Gone to Vegas"
  Tim Gautreaux

• "Good for the Soul"
  Tim Gautreaux

• "A Father’s Story"
  Andre Dubus

I’m especially glad to see the Gautreaux and "The Whore’s Child" by Russo. We’d talked about redoing an older, similar (but not just American) short story collection at Loyola (this one), and those were stories I had put on my shortlist for inclusion, among others. Three from Caroline Gordon is interesting. They must have had a good deal on rights (I’m not saying they’re not good – I’ve not read them. It’s just that in a collection like this, getting rights can be a bear, and when you find a source where it’s not so much a problem…you go with it. Which also means, chances are if there’s something spectacular that’s not included…problems with rights might be the reason).

I’d highly recommend "Good for the Soul" by Gautreaux. It’s one of the best stories I’ve ever read, on every level.