The beauty and barrenness of the southwestern landscape naturally lends itself to the art of storytellers. It is a land of heat and dryness, a land of spirits, a land that is misunderstood by those living along the coasts. "New Stories from the Southwest" presents nineteen short stories that appeared in North American periodicals between January and December 2006. Though many of these stories vary by aesthetics, tone, voice, and almost any other craft category one might wish to use, they are nevertheless bound together by at least one factor, which is that the landscape of the region plays a key role in their narratives. They each evoke and explore what it means to exist in this unique corner of the country. Selected by editor D. Seth Horton, the former fiction editor for the "Sonora Review," from a wide cross-section of journals and magazines, and with a foreword by noted writer Ray Gonzalez, "New Stories from the Southwest "presents a generous sampling of the best of contemporary fiction situated in this often overlooked area of the country. Swallow Press is particularly pleased to publish this wide-ranging collection of stories from both new and established writers.