Prize Stories: The Best of 1997, the O. Henry Awards
Proving that the term best is subjective, the editors of Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories (BASS) have selected entirely different lists to represent the highest-quality American short stories appearing last year. Only Carolyn Cooke has stories on both lists. Guest editor Proulx has added a new twist to BASS by grouping the stories into four broad categories. Rather than showing us the similarity of the selections, it demonstrates the complexity present in today's literary fiction and how the human concerns that manifest themselves in stories appear unique, owing to each author's voice and perspective. With new editor Dark, Prize Stories has expanded the number of magazines from which it selects, including for the first time Canadian authors and publications. Selected alongside familiar names like Alice Munro and John Barth are exciting new voices like Arthur Bradford and Thomas Glave. Both BASS and Prize Stories belong in most fiction collections. In the Signet title, "best" refers to best sellers, as Signet celebrates its 50th anniversary by printing new stories by blockbuster authors such as Stephen King, Ed McBain, and Erica Jong. As popular fiction is a different animal from literary fiction; only two or three of the included stories would ever be found in a literary journal. Instead, we find diverting stories that easily fit into genres like mystery, suspense, or romance. For popular collections.?Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Idaho Lib., MoscowCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.