# O. Henry Award

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.
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines. Along with The Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize Stories is one of the two "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction."
Until 2002 there were first, second, and third prize winners and from 2003 to 2019 there were three jurors who each selected a short story of special interest or merit; 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 1919 and funded by the Society of Arts and Sciences.
As of 2021, the guest editor chooses twenty short stories, each an O. Henry Prize story. All stories published in an American or Canadian periodical are eligible for consideration, including stories that have been translated into English. The goal of The O. Henry Prize Stories remains to strengthen the art of the short story.
The current series editor for The O. Henry Prize Stories is Jenny Minton Quigley. 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), Larry Dark (1997–2002) and Laura Furman (2003–2019). There were no volumes of the series in 1952 and 1953 (due to Herschel Brickell's death), 2004 and 2020.

## 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 (today PEN America), 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, John Burnside, Roger Nash, Manuel Muñoz, Ha Jin, Paul Theroux, Judy Troy, Nadine Gordimer, 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".

## First-prize winners (1919–2002)

O. Henry Award winners :
| Year | Author | Title | Publication |
| 1919 | Margaret Prescott Montague | England to America | The Atlantic Monthly, September 1918 |
| 1920 | Maxwell Struthers Burt | Each in His Generation | Scribner's Magazine, July 1920 |
| 1921 | Edison Marshall | The Heart of Little Shikara | Everybody's Magazine, January 1921 |
| 1922 | Irvin S. Cobb | Snake Doctor | Cosmopolitan, November 1922 |
| 1923 | Edgar Valentine Smith | Prelude | Harper's Magazine, May 1923 |
| 1924 | Inez Haynes Irwin | The Spring Flight | McCall's, June 1924 |
| 1925 | Julian Street | Mr. Bisbee's Princess | Redbook, May 1925 |
| 1926 | Wilbur Daniel Steele | Bubbles | Harper's Magazine |
| 1927 | Roark Bradford | Child of God | Harper's Magazine, April 1927 |
| 1928 | Walter Duranty | The Parrot | Redbook, March 1928 |
| 1929 | Dorothy Parker | Big Blonde | Bookman Magazine, February 1929 |
| 1930 | W. R. Burnett | Dressing-Up | Harper's Magazine, November 1929 |
| 1930 | William M. John | Neither Jew nor Greek | The Century Magazine, August 1929 |
| 1931 | Wilbur Daniel Steele | Can't Cross Jordan by Myself | Pictorial Review |
| 1932 | Stephen Vincent Benét | An End to Dreams | Pictorial Review, February 1932 |
| 1933 | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | Gal Young Un | Harper's Magazine, June-July 1932 |
| 1934 | Louis Paul | No More Trouble for Jedwick | Esquire |
| 1935 | Kay Boyle | The White Horses of Vienna | Harper's Magazine |
| 1936 | James Gould Cozzens | Total Stranger | The Saturday Evening Post, February 15, 1936 |
| 1937 | Stephen Vincent Benét | The Devil and Daniel Webster | The Saturday Evening Post |
| 1938 | Albert Maltz | The Happiest Man on Earth | Harper's Magazine |
| 1939 | William Faulkner | Barn Burning | Harper's Magazine |
| 1940 | Stephen Vincent Benét | Freedom's a Hard-Bought Thing | The Saturday Evening Post |
| 1941 | Kay Boyle | Defeat | The New Yorker |
| 1942 | Eudora Welty | The Wide Net | Harper's Magazine |
| 1943 | Eudora Welty | Livvie is Back | The Atlantic Monthly |
| 1944 | Irwin Shaw | Walking Wounded | The New Yorker |
| 1945 | Walter Van Tilburg Clark | The Wind and the Snow of Winter | The Yale Review |
| 1946 | John Mayo Goss | Bird Song | The Atlantic Monthly |
| 1947 | John Bell Clayton | The White Circle | Harper's Magazine |
| 1948 | Truman Capote | Shut a Final Door | The Atlantic Monthly |
| 1949 | William Faulkner | A Courtship | The Sewanee Review |
| 1950 | Wallace Stegner | The Blue-Winged Teal | Harper's Magazine |
| 1951 | Harris Downey | The Hunters | Epoch |
| 1952 | No edition | No edition | No edition |
| 1953 | No edition | No edition | No edition |
| 1954 | Thomas Mabry | The Indian Feather | The Sewanee Review |
| 1955 | Jean Stafford | In the Zoo | The New Yorker |
| 1956 | John Cheever | The Country Husband | The New Yorker |
| 1957 | Flannery O'Connor | Greenleaf | The Kenyon Review |
| 1958 | Martha Gellhorn | In Sickness as in Health | The Atlantic Monthly |
| 1959 | Peter Taylor | Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time | The Kenyon Review |
| 1960 | Lawrence Sargent Hall | The Ledge | The Hudson Review, Winter 1958–59 |
| 1961 | Tillie Olsen | Tell Me a Riddle | New World Writing |
| 1962 | Katherine Anne Porter | Holiday | The Atlantic Monthly, December 1960 |
| 1963 | Flannery O'Connor | Everything That Rises Must Converge | New World Writing |
| 1964 | John Cheever | The Embarkment for Cythera | The New Yorker, November 3, 1962 |
| 1965 | Flannery O'Connor | Revelation | The Sewanee Review, Spring 1964 |
| 1966 | John Updike | The Bulgarian Poetess | The New Yorker, March 13, 1965 |
| 1967 | Joyce Carol Oates | In the Region of Ice | The Atlantic Monthly, August 1966 |
| 1968 | Eudora Welty | The Demonstrators | The New Yorker, November 26, 1966 |
| 1969 | Bernard Malamud | Man in the Drawer | The Atlantic Monthly, April 1968 |
| 1970 | Robert Hemenway | The Girl Who Sang with the Beatles | The New Yorker, January 11, 1969 |
| 1971 | Florence M. Hecht | Twin Bed Bridge | The Atlantic Monthly, May 1970 |
| 1972 | John Batki | Strange-Dreaming Charlie, Cow-Eyed Charlie | The New Yorker, March 20, 1971 |
| 1973 | Joyce Carol Oates | The Dead | McCall's, July 1971 |
| 1974 | Renata Adler | Brownstone | The New Yorker, January 27, 1973 |
| 1975 | Harold Brodkey | A Story in an Almost Classical Mode | The New Yorker, September 17, 1973 |
| 1975 | Cynthia Ozick | Usurpation (Other People's Stories) | Esquire, May 1974 |
| 1976 | Harold Brodkey | His Son in His Arms, in Light, Aloft | Esquire, August 1975 |
| 1977 | Shirley Hazzard | A Long Story Short | The New Yorker, July 26, 1976 |
| 1977 | Ella Leffland | Last Courtesies | Harper's Magazine, July 1976 |
| 1978 | Woody Allen | The Kugelmass Episode | The New Yorker, May 2, 1977 |
| 1979 | Gordon Weaver | Getting Serious | The Sewanee Review, Fall 1977 |
| 1980 | Saul Bellow | A Silver Dish | The New Yorker, September 25, 1978 |
| 1981 | Cynthia Ozick | The Shawl | The New Yorker, May 26, 1980 |
| 1982 | Susan Kenney | Facing Front | Epoch, Winter 1980 |
| 1983 | Raymond Carver | A Small, Good Thing | Ploughshares |
| 1984 | Cynthia Ozick | Rosa | The New Yorker, March 21, 1983 |
| 1985 | Stuart Dybek | Hot Ice | Antaeus |
| 1985 | Jane Smiley | Lily | The Atlantic Monthly |
| 1986 | Alice Walker | Kindred Spirits | Esquire, August 1985 |
| 1987 | Louise Erdrich | Fleur | Esquire, August 1986 |
| 1987 | Joyce Johnson | The Children's Wing | Harper's Magazine, July 1986 |
| 1988 | Raymond Carver | Errand | The New Yorker, June 1, 1987 |
| 1989 | Ernest J. Finney | Peacocks | The Sewanee Review, Winter 1988 |
| 1990 | Leo E. Litwak | The Eleventh Edition | TriQuarterly, Winter 1989 |
| 1991 | John Updike | A Sandstone Farmhouse | The New Yorker, June 11, 1990 |
| 1992 | Cynthia Ozick | Puttermesser Paired | The New Yorker, October 8, 1990 |
| 1993 | Thom Jones | The Pugilist at Rest | The New Yorker, December 2, 1991 |
| 1994 | Alison Baker | Better Be Ready 'Bout Half Past Eight | The Atlantic Monthly, January 1993 |
| 1995 | Cornelia Nixon | The Women Come and Go | New England Review, Spring 1994 |
| 1996 | Stephen King | The Man in the Black Suit | The New Yorker, October 31, 1994 |
| 1997 | Mary Gordon | City Life | Ploughshares |
| 1998 | Lorrie Moore | People Like That Are the Only People Here | The New Yorker, January 27, 1997 |
| 1999 | Peter Baida | A Nurse's Story | The Gettysburg Review |
| 2000 | John Edgar Wideman | Weight | The Callaloo Journal |
| 2001 | Mary Swan | The Deep | The Malahat Review |
| 2002 | Kevin Brockmeier | The Ceiling | McSweeney's |

## Juror favorites (2003–2019)

O. Henry Award Juror Favorites :
| Year | Author | Title | Publication |
| 2003 | A. S. Byatt | The Thing in the Forest | The New Yorker, June 3, 2002 |
| 2003 | Denis Johnson | Train Dreams | The Paris Review, Summer 2002 |
| 2004 | No award | No award | No award |
| 2005 | Sherman Alexie | What You Pawn I Will Redeem | The New Yorker, April 21, 2003 |
| 2005 | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | Refuge in London | Zoetrope: All-Story, Winter 2003 |
| 2005 | Elizabeth Stuckey-French | Mudlavia | The Atlantic Monthly, September 2003 |
| 2006 | Deborah Eisenberg | Window | Tin House, Spring 2004 |
| 2006 | Edward P. Jones | Old Boys, Old Girls | The New Yorker, May 3, 2004 |
| 2006 | Alice Munro | Passion | The New Yorker, March 22, 2004 |
| 2007 | Eddie Chuculate | Galveston Bay, 1826 | Manoa, Winter 2004 |
| 2007 | William Trevor | The Room | The New Yorker, May 16, 2005 |
| 2008 | Alice Munro | What Do You Want To Know For? | The American Scholar |
| 2008 | William Trevor | Folie a Deux | The New Yorker |
| 2008 | Alexi Zentner | Touch | Tin House |
| 2009 | Junot Díaz | Wildwood | The New Yorker |
| 2009 | Graham Joyce | An Ordinary Soldier of the Queen | The Paris Review |
| 2010 | James Lasdun | Oh, Death | The Paris Review, Spring 2009 |
| 2010 | Daniyal Mueenuddin | A Spoiled Man | The New Yorker, September 15, 2008 |
| 2010 | William Trevor | The Woman of the House | The New Yorker, December 15, 2008 |
| 2011 | Lynn Freed | Sunshine | Narrative Magazine |
| 2011 | Matthew Neill Null | Something You Can't Live Without | Oxford American |
| 2011 | Jim Shepard | Your Fate Hurtles Down at You | Electric Literature |
| 2012 | Yiyun Li | Kindness | A Public Space |
| 2012 | Alice Munro | Corrie | The New Yorker |
| 2013 | Andrea Barrett | The Particles | Tin House |
| 2013 | Deborah Eisenberg | Your Duck Is My Duck | Fence |
| 2013 | Kelly Link | The Summer People | Tin House |
| 2014 | Mark Haddon | The Gun | Granta |
| 2014 | Kristen Iskandrian | The Inheritors | Tin House |
| 2014 | Laura van den Berg | Opa-locka | The Southern Review |
| 2015 | Elizabeth McCracken | Birdsong from the Radio | Zoetrope: All-Story |
| 2015 | Christopher Merkner | Cabins | Subtropics |
| 2015 | Dina Nayeri | A Ride Out of Phrao | The Alaska Quarterly Review |
| 2016 | Elizabeth Genovise | Irises | The Cimarron Review |
| 2016 | Asako Serizawa | Train to Harbin | The Hudson Review |
| 2016 | Frederic Tuten | Winter, 1965 | BOMB |
| 2017 | Michelle Huneven | Too Good to Be True | Harper's |
| 2017 | Amit Majmudar | Secret Lives of the Detainees | The Kenyon Review |
| 2017 | Fiona McFarlane | Buttony | The New Yorker |
| 2018 | Jo Ann Beard | The Tomb of Wrestling | Tin House |
| 2018 | Marjorie Celona | Counterblast | The Southern Review |
| 2019 | Tessa Hadley | Funny Little Snake | The New Yorker |
| 2019 | Rachel Kondo | Girl of Few Seasons | Ploughshares Solos |
| 2019 | Weike Wang | Omakase | The New Yorker |

## Guest editor (2021–present)

O. Henry Award guest editors :
| Year | Editor |
| 2021 | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
| 2022 | Valeria Luiselli |
| 2023 | Lauren Groff |
| 2024 | Amor Towles |