O Henry Prize 2014

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2014 contains twenty prize winning stories chosen from thousands published in literary magazines over the previous year. The stories are accompanied by essays from the eminent jurors on their favorites, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2014 gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The winning stories roam the world, from Nigeria to Venice, from an erupting volcano in Iceland to a brothel in the old Wild West. They feature a dazzling array of characters: a young American falling in love in Japan, a girl raised by snake-handling fundamentalists, an old man mourning his late wife, and a fierce guard dog with a talent for escape. 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. Mark Haddon, “The Gun,” Granta Stephen Dixon, “Talk,” The American Reader Tessa Hadley, “Valentine,” The New Yorker Olivia Clare, “Pétur,” Ecotone David Bradley, “You Remember The Pin Mill,” Narrative Kirstin Valdez Quade, “Nemecia,” Narrativemagazine.com Dylan Landis, “Trust,” Tin House Allison Alsup, “Old Houses,” New Orleans Review Halina Duraj, “Fatherland,” Harvard Review Chanelle Benz, “West of the Known,” The American Reader William Trevor, “The Women,” The New Yorker Colleen Morrissey, “Good Faith,” The Cincinnati Review Robert Anthony Siegel, “The Right Imaginary Person,” Tin House Louise Erdrich, “Nero,” The New Yorker Rebecca Hirsch Garcia, “A Golden Light,” Threepenny Review Chinelo Okparanta, “Fairness,” Subtropics Kristen Iskandrian, “The Inheritors,” Tin House Michael Parker, “Deep Eddy,” Southwest Review Maura Stanton, “Oh Shenandoah,” New England Review Laura van den Berg, “Opa-Locka,” The Southern Review The Jurors on Their Favorites: Tash Aw, James Lasdun, Joan Silber The Writers on Their Work Publications Submitted...

Autorentext

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.

Klappentext

A perennial classic featuring the very best in contemporary short fiction by well-known and emerging writers alike, these stories push the boundaries of what fiction can show about the world.

Leseprobe
*Excerpted from the Introduction

The mission since 1919 of *The O. Henry Prize Stories has been to encourage the art of the short story. By calling attention to their gifts, we encourage short-story writers. When we put a story between book covers, we give it a longer life and a wider readership.

Because each story s crucial first publication was in a magazine (print or online), we list the magazines that have submitted their short fiction in the back of each collection (pp. 358 77). We hope that with the information provided, new readers will find and enjoy the magazines and perhaps subscribe to one or two. These days, a reader also has the opportunity to be a patron of the arts and donate to a magazine, which helps keep the little magazines alive.

Some of the listed magazines are not struggling. The New Yorker publishes fiction weekly and has a sterling history of cultivating and supporting writers over the long haul, as does Harper s. But some fit the classic notion of a little magazine: circulation well under one thousand, inventive design, eccentric and centrist fiction published side by side. Noon, for example, is an annual always filled with challenging fiction and always a pleasure to see and hold.

Some excellent magazines Granta, Tin House, Narrative, and The American Reader, founded in September 2012 are brought into being by the vision and ambition of private benefactors. Tin House is a rare literary magazine that s a commercial success. American nonprofit magazines with 501(c)(3) status such as A Public Space are eligible for support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a perennial pincushion when it comes to federal funding. The Threepenny Review publishes consistently readable and challenging essays, poetry, and fiction with the support of subscriber-donors, whose subscriptions make up about 35 percent of the annual budget, along with their donations (40 percent), according to editor Wendy Lesser. The rest of the broadsheet s funding comes from grants, advertising, single-copy sales, and digital sales. Narrative (and NarrativeMagazine.com) is the product of its two editors, Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks, who supported it themselves at first and gradually built a board, an advisory council, and a base of donors.

Many magazines are funded by public and private academic institutions. Shrinking state budgets may put a magazine in mortal danger, as those in charge question whether a small magazine is the best use of public funding. Does it aid the institution as, say, a winning football team does? Measuring the value of art, not to mention the value of prestige, is a trickier score to keep than that of the Cotton Bowl. Still, some institutions, private and public, continue year after year to support the magazines that give established and new writers a chance. In recent years, Ecotone has emerged as a solidly interesting magazine. The Publishing Laboratory of the creative writing department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington founded the magazine in 2005 and also supports its small press, Lookout Books. New England Review was founded in 1978 at Middlebury College, a small liberal-arts school in Vermont. New Orleans Review (1968) is sponsored by the English Department of Loyola University, New Orleans, and Subtropics by the University of Florida. Since 1915, Southwest Review has been Southern Methodist University s pride. The exquisite Southern Review is supported by Louisiana State University.

Many little magazines seek help from donors, joining schools, hospitals, scientific research institutions, museums, and a myriad of organizations that do not make a profit but add immeasurably to our lives. Your subscriptions to such magazines help keep them alive. The editors and staff of

Inhalt

Laura Furman, Introduction
Mark Haddon, “The Gun,” Granta
Stephen Dixon, “Talk,” The American Reader
Tessa Hadley, “Valentine,” The New Yorker
Olivia Clare, “Pétur,” Ecotone
David Bradley, “You Remember The Pin Mill,” Narrative
Kirstin Valdez Quade, “Nemecia,” Narrativemagazine.com
Dylan Landis, “Trust,” Tin House
Allison Alsup, “Old Houses,” New Orleans Review
Halina Duraj, “Fatherland,” Harvard Review
Chanelle Benz, “West of the Known,” The American Reader  
William Trevor, “The Women,” The New Yorker
Colleen Morrissey, “Good Faith,” The Cincinnati Review
Robert Anthony Siegel, “The Right Imaginary Person,” Tin House
Louise Erdrich, “Nero,” The New Yorker
Rebecca Hirsch Garcia, “A Golden Light,” Threepenny Review
Chinelo Okparanta, “Fairness,” Subtropics
Kristen Iskandrian, “The Inheritors,” Tin House
Michae…