O. Henry Award

**The O. Henry Award** is given for especially good short stories. The prize is given each year. The award is named after the American short story author, O. Henry.

***The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories*** is a book that is published each year with that year's twenty best stories from magazines in U.S. and Canada, 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.

## History and format

The award was first given in 1919. Money to support the award comes from the Society of Arts and Sciences.  As of 2003, the series editor chooses twenty short stories and each one is called an O. Henry Prize Story. All stories originally written in English and published in an American or Canadian magazine can possibly win. Three people become jurors each year. The jurors get the twenty prize stories in text form. The author or publication name are not listed. Each juror works alone and chooses one special short story  and comments on it.

The goal of The O. Henry Prize Stories is to improve 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.

Laura Furman is now the series editor for _The O. Henry Prize Stories_.

## Partnership with PEN American Center

In 2009 Anchor books announced a change in the series tittle. Anchor is the publisher of The O. Henry Prize Stories. They worked with the PEN American Center and renamed the series the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories collection. Profits from selling The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009 books went to PEN's Readers & Writers Program. This program sends well-known authors to under served inner-city schools.

In an interview for the Vintage Books and Anchor Books blog, editor Laura Furman called working 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.

|2012|*Yiyun Li: "Kindness" in _A Public Space_ *Alice Munro: "Corrie" in _The New Yorker_|
| --- | --- |
|2011|*Lynn Freed: "Sunshine" *Matthew Neill Null: "Something You Can't Live Without" *Jim Shepard: "Your Fate Hurtles Down at You"|
|2010|*Daniyal Mueenuddin: "A Spoiled Man" in _The New Yorker_ September 15, 2008 *James Lasdun: "Oh, Death" in _The Paris Review_ as "The Hollow", Spring 2009 #188 *William Trevor: "The Woman of the House" in _The New Yorker_, December 15, 2008|
|2009|*Graham Joyce: "An Ordinary Soldier of the Queen" in _The Paris Review_ *Junot Díaz: "Wildwood" in _The New Yorker_|
|2008|*Alexi Zentner: "Touch" in _Tin House_ *Alice Munro: "What Do You Want To Know For?" in _The American Scholar_ *William Trevor: "Folie a Deux" in _The New Yorker_|
|2007|*Eddie Chuculate: "Galveston Bay, 1826" in _Manoa_, Vol 16., No. 2, Winter 2004 *William Trevor: "The Room" in _The New Yorker_, May 16, 2005|
|2006|*Edward P. Jones: "Old Boys, Old Girls" in _The New Yorker_, May 3, 2004 *Deborah Eisenberg: "Window" in _Tin House_, Issue 19, Spring 2004 *Alice Munro: "Passion" in _The New Yorker_, March 22, 2004|
|2005|*Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: "Refuge in London" in _Zoetrope_, Vol. 7, No. 4, Winter 2003 *Sherman Alexie: "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" in _The New Yorker_, April 21, 2003 *Elizabeth Stuckey-French: "Mudlavia" in _The Atlantic Monthly_, Sept. 2003|
|2004|*No edition|
|2003|*Denis Johnson: "Train Dreams" in _The Paris Review_, Summer 2002 *A. S. Byatt: "The Thing in The Forest" in _The New Yorker_, June 3, 2002|
|2002|*Kevin Brockmeier: "The Ceiling” in _McSweeney's_, No. 7|
|2001|*Mary Swan: "The Deep” in _The Malahat Review_, No. 131|
|2000|*John Edgar Wideman: "Weight” in _The Callaloo Journal_, Vol. 22, No. 3|
|1999|*Peter Baida: "A Nurse's Story” in _The Gettysburg Review_, Vol. 13, No. 3|
|1998|*Lorrie Moore: "People Like That Are the Only People Here” in _The New Yorker_, January 27, 1997|
|1997|*Mary Gordon: "City Life” in _Ploughshares_, Vol. 22, No. 1|
|1996|*Stephen King: "The Man in the Black Suit” in _The New Yorker_, October 31, 1994|
|1995|*Cornelia Nixon: "The Women Come and Go” in _New England Review_, Spring 1994|
|1994|*Alison Baker: "Better Be Ready 'Bout Half Past Eight” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, January 1993|
|1993|*Thom Jones: "The Pugilist at Rest” in _The New Yorker_, December 2, 1991|
|1992|*Cynthia Ozick: "Puttermesser Paired” in _The New Yorker_, October 8, 1990|
|1991|*John Updike: "A Sandstone Farmhouse” in _The New Yorker_, June 11, 1990|
|1990|*Leo E. Litwak: "The Eleventh Edition” in _TriQuarterly_, No. 74, Winter 1989|
|1989|*Ernest J. Finney: "Peacocks” in _The Sewanee Review_, Winter 1988|
|1988|*Raymond Carver: "Errand” in _The New Yorker_, June 1, 1987|
|1987|*Louise Erdrich: "Fleur” in _Esquire_, August 1986 *Joyce Johnson: "The Children's Wing” in _Harper's Magazine_, July 1986|
|1986|*Alice Walker: "Kindred Spirits” in _Esquire_, August 1985|
|1985|*Stuart Dybek: "Hot Ice” in _Antaeus_ *Jane Smiley: "Lily” in _The Atlantic Monthly_|
|1984|*Cynthia Ozick: "Rosa” in _The New Yorker_, March 21, 1983 *Gordon Lish: "For Jeromé—with Love and Kisses" in "The Antioch Review", Summer 1983, 1984|
|1983|*Raymond Carver: "A Small, Good Thing” in _Ploughshares_, Vol. 8, Nos. 2 & 3|
|1982|*Susan Kenney: "Facing Front” in _Epoch_, Winter 1980|
|1981|*Cynthia Ozick: "The Shawl” in _The New Yorker_, May 26, 1980|
|1980|*Saul Bellow: "A Silver Dish” in _The New Yorker_, September 25, 1978|
|1979|*Gordon Weaver:  "Getting Serious” in _The Sewanee Review_, Fall 1977 *Anne Leaton:  "The Passion of Marco Z" in _Transatlantic Review_, 55/56|
|1978|*Woody Allen: "The Kugelmass Episode” in _The New Yorker_, May 2, 1977|
|1977|*Shirley Hazzard: "A Long Story Short” in _The New Yorker_, July 26, 1976 *Ella Leffland: "Last Courtesies” in _Harper's Magazine_, July 1976|
|1976|*Harold Brodkey: "His Son in His Arms, in Light, Aloft” in _Esquire_, August 1975|
|1975|*Harold Brodkey: "A Story in an Almost Classical Mode” in _The New Yorker_, September 17, 1973 *Cynthia Ozick: "Usurpation (Other People's Stories)” in _Esquire_, May 1974|
|1974|*Renata Adler: "Brownstone” in _The New Yorker_, January 27, 1973|
|1973|*Joyce Carol Oates: "The Dead” in _McCall's_, July 1971|
|1972|*John Batki: "Strange-Dreaming Charlie, Cow-Eyed Charlie” in _The New Yorker_, March 20, 1971|
|1971|*Florence M Hecht: "Twin Bed Bridge” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, May 1970|
|1970|*Robert Hemenway: "The Girl Who Sang with the Beatles” in _The New Yorker_, January 11, 1969|
|1969|*Bernard Malamud: "Man in the Drawer” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, April 1968|
|1968|*Eudora Welty: "The Demonstrators” in _The New Yorker_, November 26, 1966|
|1967|*Joyce Carol Oates: "In the Region of Ice” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, August 1966|
|1966|*John Updike: "The Bulgarian Poetess” in _The New Yorker_, March 13, 1965|
|1965|*Flannery O'Connor: "Revelation” in _The Sewanee Review_, Spring 1964|
|1964|*John Cheever: "The Embarkment for Cythera” in _The New Yorker_, November 3, 1962|
|1963|*Terry Southern: "The Road Out of Axotle" in "Esquire", August, 1962 *Flannery O'Connor: "Everything That Rises Must Converge” in _New World Writing_|
|1962|*Katherine Anne Porter: "Holiday” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, December 1960|
|1961|*Tillie Olsen: "Tell Me a Riddle” in _New World Writing_, No. 16|
|1960|*Lawrence Sargent Hall: "The Ledge” in _The Hudson Review_, Winter, 1958–59|
|1959|*Peter Taylor: "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time” in _The Kenyon Review_|
|1958|*Martha Gellhorn: "In Sickness as in Health” in _The Atlantic Monthly_|
|1957|*Flannery O'Connor: "Greenleaf” in _The Kenyon Review_|
|1956|*John Cheever: "The Country Husband” in _The New Yorker_|
|1955|*Jean Stafford: "In the Zoo” in _The New Yorker_|
|1954|*Thomas Mabry: "The Indian Feather” in _The Sewanee Review_|
|1951|*Harris Downey: "The Hunters” in _Epoch_|
|1950|*Wallace Stegner: "The Blue-Winged Teal” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1949|*William Faulkner: "A Courtship” in _The Sewanee Review_|
|1948|*Truman Capote: "Shut a Final Door” in _The Atlantic Monthly_|
|1947|*John Bell Clayton: "The White Circle” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1946|*John Mayo Goss: "Bird Song” in _The Atlantic Monthly_|
|1945|*Walter Van Tilburg Clark: "The Wind and the Snow of Winter” in _The Yale Review_|
|1944|*Irwin Shaw: "Walking Wounded” in _The New Yorker_|
|1943|*Eudora Welty: "Livvie is Back” in _The Atlantic Monthly_|
|1942|*Eudora Welty: "The Wide Net” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1941|*Kay Boyle: "Defeat” in _The New Yorker_|
|1940|*Stephen Vincent Benét: "Freedom's a Hard-Bought Thing” in _The Saturday Evening Post_|
|1939|*William Faulkner: "Barn Burning” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1938|*Albert Maltz: "The Happiest Man on Earth” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1937|*Stephen Vincent Benét: "The Devil and Daniel Webster” in _The Saturday Evening Post_|
|1936|*James Gould Cozzens: "Total Stranger” in _The Saturday Evening Post_, February 15, 1936|
|1935|*Kay Boyle: "The White Horses of Vienna” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1934|*Louis Paul: "No More Trouble for Jedwick” in _Esquire_|
|1933|*Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: "Gal Young Un” in _Harper's Magazine_, June & July 1932|
|1932|*Stephen Vincent Benét: "An End to Dreams” in _Pictorial Review_, February 1932|
|1931|*Wilbur Daniel Steele: "Can't Cross Jordan by Myself” in _Pictorial Review_|
|1930|*W. R. Burnett: "Dressing-Up” in _Harper's Magazine_, November 1929 *William H. John: "Neither Jew nor Greek” in _Century Magazine_, August 1929|
|1929|*Dorothy Parker: "Big Blonde” in _Bookman Magazine_, February 1929|
|1928|*Walter Duranty: "The Parrot” in _Redbook_, March 1928|
|1927|*Roark Bradford: "Child of God” in _Harper's Magazine_, April 1927|
|1926|*Wilbur Daniel Steele: "Bubbles” in _Harper's Magazine_|
|1925|*Julian Street: "Mr. Bisbee's Princess” in _Redbook_, May 1925|
|1924|*Inez Haynes Irwin: "The Spring Flight” in _McCall's_, June 1924|
|1923|*Edgar Valentine Smith: "Prelude” in _Harper's Magazine_, May 1923|
|1922|*Irvin S. Cobb: "Snake Doctor” in _Cosmopolitan_, November 1922|
|1921|*Edison Marshall:  "The Heart of Little Shikara” in _Everybody's Magazine_, January 1921|
|1920|*Maxwell Struthers Burt: "Each in His Generation” in _Scribner's Magazine_, July 1920|
|1919|*Margaret Prescott Montague: "England to America” in _The Atlantic Monthly_, September 1918|

## Other websites

- Complete list of winners 1919–1999