Synopses & Reviews
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011 contains twenty unforgettable stories selected from hundreds of literary magazines. The winning tales take place in such far-flung locales as Madagascar, Nantucket, a Midwestern meth lab, Antarctica, and a post-apocalyptic England, and feature a fascinating array of characters: aging jazzmen, avalanche researchers, a South African wild child, and a mute actor in silent films. Also included are essays from the eminent jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winners on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.
Your Fate Hurtles Down at You
Jim Shepard
Diary of an Interesting Year
Helen Simpson
Melinda
Judy Doenges
Nightblooming
Kenneth Calhoun
The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kálmán Once Lived
Tamas Dobozy
Ice
Lily Tuck
How to Leave Hialeah
Jennine Capó Crucet
The Junction
David Means
Pole, Pole
Susan Minot
Alamo Plaza
Brad Watson
The Black Square
Chris Adrian
Nothing of Consequence
Jane Delury
The Rules Are the Rules
Adam Foulds
The Vanishing American
Leslie Parry
Crossing
Mark Slouka
Bed Death
Lori Ostlund
Windeye
Brian Evenson
Sunshine
Lynn Freed
Never Come Back
Elizabeth Tallent
Something You Can’t Live Without
Matthew Neill Null
For author interviews, photos, and more, go to www.ohenryprizestories.com
A portion of the proceeds from this book will go to support the PEN Readers & Writers Literary Outreach Program.
Synopsis
A perennial classic featuring the best short stories selected from thousands published in literary magazines; now in partnership with PEN American Center.
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011 contains twenty unforgettable stories by great writers such as Jim Shepard, Lily Tuck, David Means, and Susan Minot, as well as from new and emerging voices. The stories are accompanied by essays from the eminent jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winners on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.
Synopsis
The Best American Short Stories is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction, guest edited in 2012 by Pultizer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout.
Synopsis
The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the countrys finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volumes series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.
The Best American Short Stories 2012 includes
Nathan Englander, Mary Gaitskill, Roxane Gay, Jennifer Haigh,
Steven Millhauser, Alice Munro, Lawrence Osborne, Eric Puchner,
George Saunders, Kate Walbert, and others
Synopsis
“As our vision becomes more global, our storytelling is stretching in many ways. Stories increasingly change point of view, switch location, and sometimes pack as much material as a short novel might,” writes guest editor Elizabeth Strout. “Its the variety of voices that most indicates the increasing confluence of cultures involved in making us who we are.”
The Best American Short Stories 2013 presents an impressive diversity of writers who dexterously lead us into their corners of the world.
In “Miss Lora,” Junot Díaz masterfully puts us in the mind of a teenage boy who throws aside his better sense and pursues an intimate affair with a high school teacher. Sheila Kohler tackles innocence and abuse as a child wanders away from her mother, in thrall to a stranger she believes is the “Magic Man.” Kirstin Valdez Quades “Nemecia” depicts the after-effects of a secret, violent family trauma. Joan Wickershams “The Tunnel” is a tragic love story about a mothers declining health and her daughters helplessness as she struggles to balance her responsibility to her mother and her own desires. New author Callan Winks “Breatharians” unsettles the reader as a farm boy shoulders a grim chore in the wake of his parents estrangement.
“Elizabeth Strout was a wonderful reader, an author who knows well that the sound of ones writing is just as important as and indivisible from the content,” writes series editor Heidi Pitlor. “Here are twenty compellingly told, powerfully felt stories about urgent matters with profound consequences.”
About the Author
TOM PERROTTA is the author of six works of fiction, most recently The Leftovers, published to wide acclaim in September 2011. His novels Election and Little Children were made into award-winning movies.HEIDI PITLOR is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been the series editor for The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage.
Table of Contents
Your Fate Hurtles Down at YouJim Shepard
Diary of an Interesting Year
Helen Simpson
Melinda
Judy Doenges
Nightblooming
Kenneth Calhoun
The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kálmán Once Lived
Tamas Dobozy
Ice
Lily Tuck
How to Leave Hialeah
Jennine Capó Crucet
The Junction
David Means
Pole, Pole
Susan Minot
Alamo Plaza
Brad Watson
The Black Square
Chris Adrian
Nothing of Consequence
Jane Delury
The Rules Are the Rules
Adam Foulds
The Vanishing American
Leslie Parry
Crossing
Mark Slouka
Bed Death
Lori Ostlund
Windeye
Brian Evenson
Sunshine
Lynn Freed
Never Come Back
Elizabeth Tallent
Something You Can’t Live Without
Matthew Neill Null