The complexity of the American city is captured in seventeen extraordinary stories that compose this exceptional anthology edited by award-winning author Ilan Stavans. The stories in this collection travel between the greatest of American cities: from F. Scott Fitzgerald's bright bauble of New York to Raymond Chandler's moody Los Angeles; range historically from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Paul Auster; cross gender to Dorothy Parker and race to Zora Neal Hurston and James Baldwin. The Urban Muse pays tribute to magnificence of the American city by capturing the full range of voices and cultures that have taken part in its drama.