Books in the Pen / O. Henry Prize Stories series

So many great novels in the Western canon began as mere magazine stories. In this amazing collection, editor William Abrahams brings the best literature that periodicals had to give during 1995. These prize winning stories will not only entertain but give a glimpse into the mindset of the mid-nineties.

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious awards for short fiction.”—The Atlantic Monthly   The O. Henry Prize Stories 1994 gathers 21 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines.   Stories include:Alison Baker “Better Be Ready ‘Bout Half Past Eight” (first prize) John Rolfe Gardiner “The Voyage Out” (second prize) Lorrie Moore “Terrific Mother” (third prize) Stuart Dybek “We Didn’t” Marlin Barton “Jeremiah’s Road” Kelly Cherry “Not the Phil Donahue Show” Elizabeth Cox “The Third of July” Terry Bain “Games” Amy Bloom “Semper Fidelis” Michael Fox “Rise and Shine” David McLean “Marine Corps Issue” Elizabeth Graver “The Boy Who Fell Forty Feet” Susan Starr Richards “The Hanging in the Foaling Barn” Janice Eidus “Pandora’s Box” Judith Ortiz Cofer “Nada” Mary Tannen “Elaine’s House” Dennis Trudell “Gook” Helen Fremont “Where She Was” Elizabeth Oness “The Oracle” Katherine L. Hester “Labor” Thomas E. Kennedy “Landing Zone X-Ray”  

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious award for short fiction.”—The Atlantic Monthly Established in 1918 as a memorial to the master of the short story genre, O. Henry, Prize Stories has long been recognized as the premier forum for the contemporary story. The volume for 1993 carries forth the time-honored literary tradition in 23 selections as original and varied as the current trends in short fiction. The top prize for 1993 is awarded to Thom Jones’s “The Pugilist at Rest,” which explores the interior depths of depression through the eyes of Vietnam vet and former Marine boxing champion. Other stories in this collection include: Andrea Lee “Winter Barley” William F. Van Wert “Shaking” Joyce Carol Oates “Goose-Girl” Charles Eastman “Yellow Flags” Cornelia Nixon “Risk” Rilla Askew “The Killing Blanket” Antonya Nelson “Dirty Words” John H. Richardson “The Pink House” Diane Levenberg “A Modern Love Story” John Van Kirk “Newark Job” Alice Adams “The Islands” Stephen Dixon “The Rare Muscovite” Lorrie Moore “Charades” Kate Wheeler “Improving My Average” Peter Weltner “The Greek Head” C. E. Poverman “The Man Who Died” Jennifer Egan “Puerto Vallarta” Charles Johnson “Kwoon” Linda Svendsen “The Edger Man” Daniel Stern “The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka: A Story” Josephine Jacobsen “The Pier-Glass” Steven Schwarz “Madagascar”

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious awards for short fiction”—The Atlantic Monthly   The O. Henry Prize Stories 1992 gathers 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. Stories include: Cynthia Ozick “Puttermesser Paired” (first prize) Lucy Honig “English as a Second Language” Tom McNeal “What Happened to Tully” Amy Herrick “Pinocchio’s Nose” Murray Pomerance “Decor” Joyce Carol Oates “Why Don’t You Come Live With Me It’s Time” Mary Michael Wagner “Acts of Kindness” Yolanda Barnes “Red Lipstick” David Long “Blue Spruce” Harriett Doerr “Way Stations” Perri Klass “Dedication” Daniel Meltzer “People” Ken Chowder “With Seth in Tana Toraja” Alice Adams “The Last Lovely City” Frances Sherwood “Demiurges” Antonya Nelson “The Control Group” Millicent Dillon “Lost in L.A.” Kent Nelson “The Mine from Nicaragua” Ann Packer “Babies” Kate Braverman “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta”   “What readers can put their trust in is the ability of William Abrahams . . . to amass a selection of the finest short stories published in America.”—New York Times Book Review

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious awards for short fiction”—The Atlantic Monthly   The O. Henry Prize Stories 1990 gathers 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. Stories include: Leo E. Litwak “The Eleventh Edition” (first prize) Peter Matthiessen “Lumumba Lives” (second prize) Lore Segal “The Reverse Bug” (third prize) Joyce Carol Oates “Heat” Carolyn Osborn “The Grands” James P. Blaylock “Unidentified Objects” Jane Brown Gillette “Sins Against Animals” Julie Schumacher “The Private Life of Robert Schumann” Joanne Greenberg “Elizabeth Baird” Alice Adams “1940: Fall” T. Coraghessan Boyle “The Ape Lady in Retirement” Marilyn Sides “The Island of the Mapmaker’s Wife” David Michael Kaplan “Stand” Meredith Steinbach “In Recent History” Claudia Smith Brinson “Einstein’s Daughter” Felicia  Ackerman “The Forecasting Game” Reginald McKnight “The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas” Bruce Fleming “The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein” Devon Jersild “In Which John Imagines His Mind as a Pond” Janice Eidus “Vito Loves Geraldine”   “One of the most welcome signs of the literary spring is the appearance of the annual O. Henry Awards collection.”—Los Angeles Times