CONTEMPORARY MAINE FICTION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT STORIES, edited by Wesley McNair, Down East Books, Camden, 2005, 295 pages, $25.

Those of us fortunate enough to call Maine home may have sensed, in recent years, that a great deal of first-rate fiction was being written within our borders. Just how good, though, has been made abundantly clear by Wes McNair in his new collection, “Contemporary Maine Fiction: An Anthology of Short Stories.”

McNair explains the phenomenon by noting, in his introduction, that “several highly gifted writers have moved to the state to make their home here. … Moreover, [several] native writers … have emerged with debut collections of their short stories.”

But readers who dive into “Contemporary Maine Fiction” may find it easier to believe that some kind of harmonic convergence is operating in the realm of imaginative literature.

Some of the authors in the collection will be familiar; some of them will be treasured new acquaintances. There’s Carolyn Chute’s “Ollie, Oh…,” for example, her first major publication, written two years before “The Beans of Egypt, Maine,” to remind us what a singular talent she is. In this story about a fiercely grieving woman, even the pickup truck has a distinct personality: “Of course it had four-wheel drive. It had shoulders! Thighs. Spine. It might still be growing.”

Also familiar is Stephen King, although perhaps not as well-known is his story “The Reach,” which conveys the nature of life on Maine’s islands as well as anything I know. Along with a cast of fully realized characters and King’s trademark strong plotting, perfect dialogue and knife-twist of the-not-quite-this-worldly, comes a sense of a real yarn.

Susan Kenney’s story, “The Death of the Dog and Other Rescues,” from “In Another Country,” deserves to be read again and again for its description of ordinary events and extraordinary responses.

Then the writers from away, now from here. Lily King, author of two novels and many stories, represented by “Five Tuesdays in Winter,” a sweet love story with a happy ending; Debra Spark, who provides some cultural diversity with her story of a pocket-sized rabbi whose instructional tales help to change the life of a Portland preschool teacher; Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winner now living in East Boothbay, whose “Charity” tells the story of a husband and wife who, on a trip through Maine, find a new understanding of themselves along the way.

“Contemporary Maine Fiction” has something for everyone. Readers will find domestic drama in Monica Wood’s story about an out-of-work millworker with a dying wife and a vision; they’ll find points of view quite different from their own in Cathie Pelletier’s “The Music of Angels,” about a young girl living with the aftermath of divorce, and in Ellen Cooney’s “See the Girl,” about a child with cerebral palsy traveling to a hospital. They’ll find unforgettable losers with dreams in both Lewis Robinson’s “Finches” and Elaine Ford’s “Elwood’s Last Job.” Jim Nichols (in “Slow Monkeys”) gives us an aspiring writer who leaves Maine to learn about life and death in a Salvation Army shelter in Florida.

And for the ultimate in East meets West, there’s Richard Russo – another Pulitzer Prize winner – whose “Monhegan Light” conveys the isolation of that island reflected in the isolation of a visitor from the cinema world of California, who thinks he understands “why people who live in such a harsh, unforgiving landscape might come to sterner conclusions about sex and life in general than they did in, say, Malibu.”

One of the book’s strongest selections is “A Job at Little Henry’s” by Bill Roorbach. This story has it all: characters as well-conceived and described as any you’ll come across; a page-turning plot; humor; and a strong sense of place – in this case, central Maine, well away from the coast.

That’s the paradox of all of these stories, really, and what makes them as strong as they are. Yes, they all have a convincing sense of place, although from fresh perspectives. “This was Maine,” says Richard Ford’s character, “small in scale, profusely scenic, annoyingly remote, exclusive and crowded.”

But as well as a sense of place, they exhibit, at the same time, a sense of universality. All children are devastated by divorce – whether in northern Maine or in Northern Ireland; all husbands and wives, no matter how long married, can occasionally feel there’s a stranger on the other side of the bed. Whether these writers are dealing with death, with change, with loneliness, with friends and enemies and lovers, their characters’ common humanity transcends their geographical location.

Maine’s borders, which at times may seem perfectly distinct and clearly drawn, can also be seen – as witnessed by this new collection – to encompass the earth.