William Pei Shih

Biography

William Pei Shih’s stories have been featured or are forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories (2020 and 2025), The Georgia Review, VQR, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Joyland Magazine, The Southern Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Boston Review, The Los Angeles Review, The Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He is the fiction editor at Guernica magazine and teaches at New York University.

William Pei Shih headshot.

See Work

FICTION / Summer 2025

Tenth Year

By William Pei Shih ,  Illustrations by Ricardo Diseño

I do not mean to be a hated person. I have thick skin. There are those whom I have set up for failure. I will subvert expectations. 

In public, I pretend not to notice my pupil. I look busy. I am busy. I look like I am enjoying myself as the...

Tenth Year - Illustration by Ricardo Diseño
FICTION / Summer 2019

Enlightenment

By William Pei Shih ,  Illustration by Kim Ryu

Harvard, 1966. Abel Jones is in his third year. He is an exceptional student, head of the class. He is studying history. His area of focus, the eighteenth century. England and France. Still, there are days when he is lost.