What's new?: The 10 best contemporary stories I read in 2015

Following up on my post on the 10 best classic short stories I read in 2015, here are the ten best contemporary stories I read in 2015 - not ranked, and sometimes tough to pick the best among several by the same author, but I offer this to give you a sense of the range of stories published today, obviously with a bias skewed toward my taste, which is probably more conventional and traditional (character, plot, resolution, clarity) than the taste of most editors who are often drawn to the new and the extreme (understandably - they are flooded with so much good material - and bad material - that the unusual and exceptional tends to stand out). These selections are from a # of anthologies I read over the year, a few collections I read all or part of, and of course from the New Yorker (wish I had time to read a more diverse selection of magazines, though):

Charles Baxter, "Charity" - A fine example of his work, a story of random violence and human kindness. (CB is an old friend of mine; that said, I'm sure he's on everyone's list of best American short-story artists.)

Ann Beattie, "The Indian Uprising" - Great example of Beattie's wit and acuity; Beattie, who kindly did me a favor re my own work, continues to write great stories that capture the zeitgeist of her, my, generation - over many decades.

Lydia Davis - could choose from among many in her collection Can't and Won't but how about this that I'll quote as best I can in its entirety from memory: "Beneath all the layers of dirt, the floor is actually quite clean."

Louise Erdrich, "The Flower" - An epic captured within the scope of a short story, with Erdrich once again examining the clash between Native and White cultures on the frontier, with a bit of magic realism as part of the mix.

David Gates, "A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me" - One of the rare short stories that chronicles a relationship developing, evolving, and resolving over the course of a lifetime.

Tessa Hadley, "Silk Brocade" - Hadley is quietly emerging as the premier British short story writer, esp now that Trevor seems to have retired. This is one of her trenchant accounts of social class and love and memory.

Ben Marcus, "Cold Little Bird" - A perplexing and gut-wrenching story about the sudden and unexplained changes in the behavior of a child and the effect on the family, especially the father who finds himself in the cross-hairs.

Tim Parks, "Vespa" -  Even though I assume Parks is far beyond his teenage years, somehow this story about a stolen motorbike captures the tensions and craziness and dangers of teenage life today.

Joy Williams, "Chicken Hill" - From a writer who this year re-emerged from obscurity and received a ton of press and attention, this story shows why - a very odd mix of wit, realism, and perhaps delusion.

Alejandro Zamba, "Reading Comprehension No. 1" - A great account of the self-destruction of a teacher from the POV of a student, with some real technical wizardry and formal surprises.