Widely regarded as the nation s most prestigious awards for short fiction. The Atlantic Monthly
The O. Henry Prize Stories 1985 gathers 21 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines.
Stories include:
Jane Smiley Lily (first prize, jointly awarded)
Stuart Dybek Hot Ice (first prize, jointly awarded)
Ann Beattie In the White Night
Helen Norris The Quarry
Susan Minot Lust
Claude Koch Bread and Butter Questions
Wright Morris Glimpse into Another Country
Louise Erdrich Saint Marie
...

Widely regarded as the nation s most prestigious award for short fiction. The Atlantic Monthly

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1986 collects 19 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The 1986 winning story is Alice Walker s Kindred Spirits, which profiles a young African-American woman after her divorce from her white husband. A Special Award for Continuing Achievement is given to Joyce Carol Oates for Master Race that narrates a shocking of a sexual assault in Germany. Other stories include:
Stuart Dybek Pet Milk...

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 1987 volume carries forth the time-honored literary tradition in 20 selections as original and varied as the current trends in short fiction. The top prize for 1987 is jointly awarded to Louise Erdrich for Fleur and Joyce Johnson for The Children s Wing.
Other stories include:
Robert Boswell The Darkness of Love
Alice Adams Tide Pools
Stuart Dybek Blight
James Lott The Janeites
...

Widely regarded as the nation s most prestigious awards for short fiction The Atlantic Monthly
The O. Henry Prize Stories 1989 gathers 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines.
Stories include:
Ernest J. Finney Peacocks (first prize)
Joyce Carol Oates House Hunting (second prize)
Harriet Doerr Edie: A Life (third prize)
Jean Ross The Sky Fading Upward to Yellow: A Footnote to Literary History
Starkey Flythe, Jr. CV10
Alice Adams After You ve Gone
Frances Sherwood History
...

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...

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1991collects 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The Sandstone Farmhouse by John Updike, which tells of a difficult relationship of a son and his mother over 50 years, takes the coveted top prize. The other stories in this collection are:
Joyce Carol Oates The Swimmers
Sharon Sheehe Stark Overland
Martha Lacy Hall The Apple-Green Triumph
Wayne Johnson Hippies, Indians, Buffalo
Perri Klass For Women Everywhere
Helen Norris Raisin Faces
Patricia Lear Powwow
...

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...

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 Storieshas 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...

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.

For the past three decades, William Abrahams has selected the O. Henry Award winners. Building on a tradition that spans over three quarters of a century, The O. Henry Awards has been "widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction" ("The Atlantic Monthly). Every year, Abrahams has chosen a diverse group of stories and writers to creat a collection that includes perennial favorites as well as an increasing number of lesser known writers, many of whom have gone on to become seminal voices in current American fiction. "Prize Stories 1996 is both William Abrahams's...