Mysterious tale earns prestigious ‘Best American’ selection for MSU professor, writer
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.—A short story by ɫƵ English Professor Becky Hagenston selected for the annual “The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026: The Year’s Best Crime Fiction” is being released this month just in time for Halloween.
“The Field” involves a missing mother, vanished woman and 11-year-old girl who may know more than she reveals about the mystery. The Mariner Books anthology including Hagenston’s story is edited by Edgar Award-winning author Megan Abbott and series editor Steph Cha.
Established in 1915, the “Best American” series showcases notable American short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor selects notable work from hundreds of print and online publications for consideration by a guest editor, who chooses roughly 20 works for the anthology.
Her story remained unfinished for years before Hagenston completed it for an art-themed issue of Mississippi Review. She later submitted the published story for consideration for the mystery collection and was surprised to learn Abbott and Cha selected it for this year’s anthology.
“I had worked on this story for so many years, and having it recognized this way is incredibly meaningful,” Hagenston said. “I know I have to be patient and keep writing even when I feel stuck. I do something writing-related every day, even if it’s staring at a page or reworking a paragraph.”
Hagenston began taking notes for “The Field” in 2010 while on sabbatical in France. While visiting friends who taught at the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing in Aix-en-Provence, she wandered into a field where art students were setting up their easels.
“In the distance were houses, and I started wondering about the people who lived there,” Hagenston said. “I began imagining what their lives might be like and what kinds of secrets they might have.”
“The Field” follows a young girl whose mother disappeared years earlier and whose father becomes involved with an American woman who also vanishes. The girl lives beside a field where art students gather to paint, giving her a view of the strangers and secrets surrounding her.
The story’s selection adds to Hagenston’s record of national recognition. An MSU faculty member since 2001, she is a 2020 Pushcart Prize winner and two-time O. Henry Award recipient. Her collection “The Age of Discovery and Other Stories” won The Journal’s book prize and the 2022 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in fiction. Her other collections include “Scavengers,” winner of the Permafrost Book Prize; “Strange Weather,” winner of the Spokane Prize in Short Fiction; and “A Gram of Mars,” winner of Sarabande Books’ Mary McCarthy Prize.
Hagenston continues to publish widely in literary journals. Since 2022, her short stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Story, Gulf Coast, Hopkins Review, Arts and Letters, and other journals. She received a 2022 Mississippi Arts Commission fellowship recognizing local artists who demonstrate excellence in their chosen fields.
Visit for more examples of her work.
Information about MSU’s and is available online.
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