The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015

by Laura Furman (Editor)

Overview

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The winning stories span the globe—from the glamorous Riviera to an Eastern European shtetl, from a Native American reservation to a tiny village in Thailand. But their characters are universally recognizable and utterly compelling, whether they are ex-pats in Africa, migrant workers crossing the Mexican border, Armenian immigrants on the rough streets of East Hollywood, or pioneers in nineteenth-century Idaho. Accompanying the stories are the editor’s introduction, essays from the eminent jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.
 
Finding Billy White Feather
PERCIVAL EVERETT
 
The Seals
LYDIA DAVIS
 
Kilifi Creek
LIONEL SHRIVER
 
The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
MANUEL MUÑOZ
 
A Permanent Member of the Family
RUSSELL BANKS
 
A Ride out of Phrao
DINA NAYERI
 
Owl
EMILY RUSKOVICH
           
The Upside-Down World
BECKY HAGENSTON
 
The Way Things Are Going
LYNN FREED
 
The History of Happiness
BRENDA PEYNADO
 
The Kingsley Drive Chorus
NAIRA KUZMICH
 
Word of Mouth
EMMA TÖRZS
 
Cabins
CHRISTOPHER MERKNER
 
My Grandmother Tells Me This Story
MOLLY ANTOPOL
 
The Golden Rule
LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ
 
About My Aunt
JOAN SILBER
 
Ba Baboon
THOMAS PIERCE
 
Snow Blind
ELIZABETH STROUT
 
I, Buffalo
VAUHINI VARA
 
Birdsong from the Radio
ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN
 
For author interviews, photos, and more, go to www.ohenryprizestories.com  
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101872314
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Series:	The O. Henry Prize Collection
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	697,414
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Laura Furman, series editor of The O. Henry Prize Stories since 2003, is the winner of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts for her fiction. The author of seven books, including her recent story collection The Mother Who Stayed, she taught writing for many years at the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Central Texas.

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Introduction
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Laura Furman.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Laura Furman, Introduction
Percival Everett, “Finding Billy White Feather,” Virginia Quarterly Review
Lydia Davis, “The Seals ,” The Paris Review
Lionel Shriver, “Kilifi Creek,” The New Yorker
Manuel Muñoz, “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA,” Glimmer Train
Russell Banks, “A Permanent Member of the Family,” Conjunctions
Dina Nayeri, “A Ride Out of Phrao,” Alaska Quarterly Review
Emily Ruskovich, “Owl,” One Story
Becky Hagenston, “The Upside-Down World,” Subtropics
Lynn Freed, “The Way Things Are Going,” Harper’s Magazine
Brenda Peynado, “The History of Happiness,” Cimarron Review
Naira Kuzmich, “The Kingsley Drive Chorus,” Salamander
Emma Törzs, “Word of Mouth,” The Threepenny Review
Christopher Merkner, “Cabins,” Subtropics
Molly Antopol, “My Grandmother Tells Me This Story,” Ecotone
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, “The Golden Rule,” Fifth Wednesday Journal
Joan Silber, “About My Aunt,” Tin House
Thomas Pierce, “Ba Baboon,” The New Yorker
Elizabeth Strout, “Snow Blind,” Virginia Quarterly Review
Vauhini Vara, “I, Buffalo,” Tin House
Elizabeth McCracken, “Birdsong from the Radio,” Zoetrope: All-Story
Reading The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015: The Jurors on Their Favorites
Writing The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015: The Writers on Their Work
Directory of Publications

Editorial Reviews

"Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction." —The Atlantic Monthly

“Those who still cling to the promise of the short story can be glad that there is still someone willing to do the heavy lifting.” —Los Angeles Times
 

From the Publisher

2015-07-01
Latest installment of the esteemed annual award volume, with some sterling examples of short fiction winningly—in all senses—executed.One doesn't envy the O. Henry Prize judges their work, given that "all stories originally written in the English language and published in an American or Canadian periodical are eligible for consideration." Of the many hundreds or even thousands of candidates thus in the running, the annual volume finds room for just 20. It's small wonder that top-tier practitioners of the form such as Elizabeth McCracken and Russell Banks should be among the winners, but, to Furman and company's credit, there's room for relative newcomers as well. Among the highlights of the volume, in that regard, is Dina Nayeri's story "A Ride out of Phrao," which proves the point of Wallace Stegner's observation that American literature is one of movement even as it serves up some sly humor: "At the next meeting of her church's widows group—an organization she joined despite the very alive state of both her ex-husbands—Shirin told the other ladies that she had quit her job because of exhaustion." It's more than exhaustion that causes Shirin to leave the comforts of Cedar Rapids for the unknown wonders of Chiang Mai and beyond, though. Judge Michael Parker writes that, among other criteria, he "need[s] to be invested in all that is at stake for the characters," information that an expert writer will share out carefully, as Lynn Sharon Schwartz does in her story "The Golden Rule," a deft study of a hard-to-like subject ("She was mean-spirited, bigoted") who becomes more interesting in death. Winning image for the year, courtesy of Emma Törzs: "She was a sharp-toothed heeler with the erratic territorialism of a cokehead landlord."What makes a short story tick? This collection doesn't offer a definitive curriculum, but it does contain plenty of good case studies.

Kirkus Reviews