New Stories from the South edited by Shannon Ravenel. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2005. $13.95 (paperback) — 309 pp.

Over the last two decades, Shannon Ravenel’s annual New Stories from the South series has become one of the most popular — and critically acclaimed — collections in America. Invariably, this anthology’s table of contents reads like a “Who’s Who” of Southern literature. If any of the authors featured here are not well known, one thing is certain — after their appearance in New Stories, they will be!

Critics sometimes quibble about the use of the word “Southern.” After all, they say, quality literature is not defined by geography. True enough, but these works are distinctly Southern because they exude the aroma, character and language of the South. They are as distinct as gritted cornbread, moon pies and a train whistle in the darkness of rural Mississippi. Here are a few examples.

Janice Daugharty is a master at capturing south Georgia vernacular, and her short story, “Dumdum” resonates with heat, dust and skillfully etched details. As a group of loafers lounge on the porch of a rural grocery, they become totally absorbed in watching the antics of five inbred calves. The rambunctious calves frolic in and out of gardens, pull washing from the line and race along the railroad track, while a frustrated farm boy attempts to herd them back to the road. Very little happens. An ancient black woman buys a R. C. Cola and a moon pie, the loafers talk vaguely about “the president getting shot,” and a traveling salesman stops and offers to buy the calves. Yet, this finely-crafted short story glows like one of Flannery O’Conner gems.

Dennis Lahane’s “Until Gwen” qualifies as the best story in this anthology (My opinion!). Told in second person, Lahane manages to create a tension that left me both frightened and elated.

Just out of prison, the narrator finds himself with his father “sitting in a stolen Dodge Neon with an 8-ball of coke in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the back seat.” This trio launches a search for buried loot and the narrator’s vanished lover, Gwen. Knowing Lahane’s previous work (Mystic River, Shutter’s Island) may prompt the reader to expect the worst for Mandy, Gwen and the father (who is bone-chillingly evil). Predictably, the reader’s expectations will be justified ... only more so.

Elizabeth Spencer’s “The Boy in the Tree” moves deftly about a common Southern dilemma: an aging mother’s stubborn resistance to moving to a nursing home and her son’s guilt, which is intensified by the appearance of a young man who may not be real. “Good Witch, Bad Witch” by Gregory Sanders conjures up that Southern tradition, Christmas dinner at Grandma’s — also known as “Ain’t” (Aunt) Rubia. Everything is there, including the candied yams, the celery sticks stuffed with pimento cheese and several generations of discontent.

Not surprisingly, these vivid slices of Southern life have a generous display of the exotic, the unusual and the downright bizarre. There is Clarence Day, the world’s smallest man in Ada Long’s “Clairvoyant” — a 20-inch man who is a sideshow exhibit at fairs and carnivals, and who has the disquieting ability to read the minds of his customers. I especially appreciated Kevin Wilson’s “The Choir Director’s Affair,” which not only had a newborn baby with a mouth full of teeth, but a red-haired woman with a split uvula that enable her to sing astonishing high notes during orgasm. Then, we can round out the collection with Alan Gurganus’ “My Heart is a Snake Farm,” a memorable roadside attraction on a Florida highway.

There are 19 stories in all, a collection with enough diversity to ring a familiar chime in the hearts of the readers whether they be from the South or not.

(Gary Carden is a writer, storyteller and lecturer whose book, Mason Jars in the Flood, was recently named Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association. He can be reached at gcarden498@aol.com.)