The Best American Short Stories 2006, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kenison and by guest editor Ann Patchett.[1][2][3] This edition is notable in that it was the last edition edited by Katrina Kenison, who was succeeded by Heidi Pitlor the following year. Also, Patchett chose to present the stories in reverse-alphabetical order.
| Author | Story | Where story previously appeared |
| Paul Yoon | "Once the Shore" | One Story |
| Tobias Wolff | "Awaiting Orders" | The New Yorker |
| Donna Tartt | "The Ambush" | Tin House |
| Maxine Swann | "Secret" | Ploughshares |
| Mark Slouka | "Dominion" | TriQuarterly |
| Patrick Ryan | "So Much for Artemis" | One Story |
| Benjamin Percy | "Refresh, Refresh" | The Paris Review |
| Edith Pearlman | "Self-Reliance" | Lake Effect |
| Alice Munro | "The View from Castle Rock" | The New Yorker |
| Kevin Moffett | "Tattooizm" | Tin House |
| Thomas McGuane | "Cowboy" | The New Yorker |
| Jack Livings | "The Dog" | The Paris Review |
| Yiyun Li | "After a Life" | Zoetrope |
| Aleksandar Hemon | "The Conductor" | The New Yorker |
| Mary Gaitskill | "Today I'm Yours" | Zoetrope |
| Nathan Englander | "How We Avenged the Blums" | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Robert Coover | "Grandmother's Nose" | Daedalus |
| David Bezmozgis | "A New Gravestone for an Old Grave" | Zoetrope |
| Katherine Bell | "The Casual Car Pool" | Ploughshares |
| Ann Beattie with Harry Matthews | "Mr. Nobody at All" | McSweeney's |
Included in the "100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2006" were stories by noted authors like John Updike, Uwem Akpan, Alice Hoffman, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeffrey Eugenides, Donald Barthelme, Chris Adrian and Judy Budnitz.