Pushcart prize XXXI, 2007 : best of the small presses / edited by Bill Henderson with the Pushcart Prize editors.

Includes bibliographical references and author index to the series since 1976.

Introduction / Bill Henderson -- Refresh refresh / Benjamin Percy -- Laundry / Maureen Stanton -- The innocent / Jean Nordhaus -- Cocktail hour / Kate Braverman -- Double abecedarian: 1963 / Julie Larios -- Voices / John Clayton -- Facing altars: poetry and prayer / Mary Karr -- Hwy 1 / Brian Turner -- If a stranger approaches you about carrying a foreign object with you onto a plane / Laura Kasichke -- Hard rain / Tony Hoagland -- Extraordinary rendition / Maxine Kumin -- The Frank Orison / Scott Geiger -- A short history of my breath / Kristin Kovacic -- Moonsnail / Cleopatra Mathis -- The lion's mouth / Ben Fountain -- A history of the American west / Kevin Prufer -- Elegy (with advertisement) struggling to find its hero / Mark Irwin -- Dogged / Risteard O'Keitinn -- A day in May: Los Angeles, 1960 / Philip Levine -- A thought, for example, is a form / Mary Ann Samyn -- Persephone the wanderer / Louise Gluck -- The odds it would be you / Alice Mattison -- Dead boys club / Reginald Shepherd -- Salvation / Stephen Dunn -- Refund / Karen E. Bender -- Vexing praxis/Hocus nexus / Mark Halliday -- Radio crackling, radio gone / Lisa Olstein -- Bye-bye Larry / Katherine Karlin -- Mastering the art of French cooking / E.J. Levy -- Self portrait in ink / Bruce Beasley -- The role of a lifetime / Floyd Skloot -- What fundamentalists need for their salvation / David James Duncan -- The land of pain / Stacey Richter -- Restoration / Sally Keith -- Home on the rain / Jonathan Carroll -- Clocks / Pam Durban -- Myth / Natasha Trethewey -- The 167th Psalm of Elvis / Tony Barnstone -- Taj Mahal / Linsey Abrams -- Nude descending / Dzvinia Orlowsky -- Halley's Comet / Laura Krughoff -- The medicine man / Kevin Moffett -- Cool things / Brian Doyle -- Stay / David Schuman -- The fires / Philip White -- The way of ignorance / Wendell Berry -- Hearing news from the Temple Mount in Salt Lake City / Jacqueline Osherow -- Vacation / Richard Burgin -- The eternal immigrant / Sharmila Voorakkara -- Dar He / R.T. Smith -- Formation / Kim Chinquee -- Some terpsichore / Elizabeth McCracken -- Lament for a stone / W.S. Merwin -- Gassed / Steve Gehrke -- Escape from hog heaven / Dina Ben-Lev -- Fight / Michael Czyzniejewski -- Sparrow trapped in the airport / Averill Curdy -- Chart / Kay Ryan -- Shelter / Nami Mun -- Goldfish: a diptych / Susan Terris -- Zion / Donald Revell -- Why Bugsy Siegel was a friend of mine / James Lee Burke -- Portrait of her mother as the 19th Century / Keith Ratzlaff.