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The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short story writer, O. Henry.
Contents
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines, written in English.
The award itself is called The O. Henry Award, not the O. Henry Prize, though until recently there were first, second and third prize winners; the collection is called The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and the original collection was called Prize Stories 1919: The O. Henry Memorial Awards
History and format
The award was first presented in 1918 and funded by the Society of Arts and Sciences. As of 2012, the series editor chooses twenty short stories, each one an O. Henry Prize story. All stories originally written in the English language and published in an American or Canadian periodical are eligible for consideration. Three jurors are appointed annually. The jurors receive the twenty prize stories in manuscript form, with no identification of author or publication. Each juror, acting independently, chooses a short story of special interest and merit, and comments on that story.
The goal of The O. Henry Prize Stories remains to strengthen the art of the short story. Starting in 2003, The O. Henry Prize Stories is dedicated to a writer who has made a major contribution to the art of the short story. The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 was dedicated to Sherwood Anderson, a U.S. short-story writer. Jurors for 2007 were Charles D'Ambrosio, Lily Tuck and Ursula K. Le Guin.
The current series editor for The O. Henry Prize Stories is Laura Furman. Past series editors have been: Blanche Colton Williams (1919–32), Harry Hansen (1933–40), Herschel Brickell (1941–51), Paul Engle (1954–59), Mary Stegner (1960), Richard Poirier (1961–66, assisted by William Abrahams, 1964–66), William Abrahams (1967–96), and Larry Dark (1997–2002). There were no volumes of the series in 1952, 1953, and 2004.
Partnership with PEN American Center
In 2009 The O. Henry Prize Stories publisher, Anchor Books, renamed the series in partnership with the PEN American Center, producing the first PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories collection. Proceeds from the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009 would be directed to PEN's Readers & Writers Program, which sends well-known authors to under served inner-city schools.
The selection included stories by Graham Joyce, Kristen Sundberg Lunstrum, E. V. Slate, John Burnside, Mohan Sikka, L. E. Miller, Alistair Morgan, Roger Nash, Manuel Muñoz, Caitlin Horrocks, Ha Jin, Paul Theroux, Judy Troy, Nadine Gordimer,Viet Dinh (not to be confused with conservative jurist Viet Dinh), Karen Brown (author), Marisa Silver, Paul Yoon, Andrew Sean Greer and Junot Díaz, with A. S. Byatt, Tim O'Brien and Anthony Doerr – all authors of past O. Henry Prize Stories – serving as the prize jury.
In an interview for the Vintage Books and Anchor Books blog, editor Laura Furman called the collaboration with PEN a "natural partnership."
Juror favorites, first-prize winners
For more information or complete lists of yearly winners, visit The O. Henry Prize Stories website.