Magazine and small book press editors are invited to submit up to six works they have featured.
The founding editors were Anaïs Nin, Buckminster Fuller, Charles Newman, Daniel Halpern, Gordon Lish, Harry Smith, Hugh Fox, Ishmael Reed, Joyce Carol Oates, Len Fulton, Leonard Randolph, Leslie Fiedler, Nona Balakian, Paul Bowles, Paul Engle, Ralph Ellison, Reynolds Price, Rhoda Schwartz, Richard Morris, Ted Wilentz, Tom Montag, Bill Henderson[3] and William Phillips.
Each edition of the Pushcart Prize includes a complete index of presses and writers reprinted in the anthology since 1976.
Among the writers who received early recognition in Pushcart Prize anthologies were: Kathy Acker, Steven Barthelme, Rick Bass, Charles Baxter, Bruce Boston, Anne Carson, Raymond Carver, Joshua Clover, Junot Diaz, Andre Dubus, William H. Gass, Suzanne Kamata, Seán Mac Falls, William Monahan, Paul Muldoon, Tim O'Brien, Lance Olsen,[5] Miha Mazzini,[6] Peter Orner, Kevin Prufer, Kay Ryan, Mona Simpson, Ana Menéndez, Ladette Randolph, Kaveh Akbar and Wells Tower.
Kirkus Reviews praised it as "must reading for anyone interested in the present and future of America's arts and letters".