| O. Henry Award | |
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| Awarded For: | Short story awards |
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| Country: | United States |
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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.
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines.
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.
The award was first presented in 1919 and funded by the Society of Arts and Sciences.[1] [2] 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.[1]
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.[3]
In an interview for the Vintage Books and Anchor Books blog, editor Laura Furman called the collaboration with PEN a "natural partnership".[4]
| 1919 | England to America | , September 1918 | |||
| 1920 | Each in His Generation | Scribner's Magazine, July 1920 | |||
| 1921 | Everybody's Magazine, January 1921 | ||||
| 1922 | Snake Doctor | Cosmopolitan, November 1922 | |||
| 1923 | Prelude | Harper's Magazine, May 1923 | |||
| 1924 | McCall's, June 1924 | ||||
| 1925 | Mr. Bisbee's Princess | Redbook, May 1925 | |||
| 1926 | Bubbles | Harper's Magazine | |||
| 1927 | Child of God | Harper's Magazine, April 1927 | |||
| 1928 | Redbook, March 1928 | ||||
| 1929 | Big Blonde | Bookman Magazine, February 1929 | |||
| 1930 | Dressing-Up | Harper's Magazine, November 1929 | [6] | ||
| Neither Jew nor Greek | , August 1929 | ||||
| 1931 | Can't Cross Jordan by Myself | Pictorial Review | |||
| 1932 | Pictorial Review, February 1932 | ||||
| 1933 | Gal Young Un | Harper's Magazine, June-July 1932 | |||
| 1934 | No More Trouble for Jedwick | Esquire | |||
| 1935 | Harper's Magazine | ||||
| 1936 | Total Stranger | , February 15, 1936 | |||
| 1937 | |||||
| 1938 | Harper's Magazine | ||||
| 1939 | Barn Burning | Harper's Magazine | |||
| 1940 | Freedom's a Hard-Bought Thing | ||||
| 1941 | Defeat | ||||
| 1942 | Harper's Magazine | ||||
| 1943 | Livvie is Back | ||||
| 1944 | Walking Wounded | ||||
| 1945 | |||||
| 1946 | Bird Song | ||||
| 1947 | Harper's Magazine | ||||
| 1948 | Shut a Final Door | ||||
| 1949 | |||||
| 1950 | Harper's Magazine | ||||
| 1951 | Epoch | ||||
| 1952 | No edition | ||||
| 1953 | No edition | ||||
| 1954 | |||||
| 1955 | In the Zoo | ||||
| 1956 | |||||
| 1957 | Greenleaf | ||||
| 1958 | In Sickness as in Health | ||||
| 1959 | Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time | ||||
| 1960 | , Winter 1958–59 | ||||
| 1961 | Tell Me a Riddle | New World Writing | |||
| 1962 | Holiday | , December 1960 | |||
| 1963 | Everything That Rises Must Converge | New World Writing | |||
| 1964 | , November 3, 1962 | ||||
| 1965 | Revelation | , Spring 1964 | |||
| 1966 | , March 13, 1965 | [7] | |||
| 1967 | In the Region of Ice | , August 1966 | |||
| 1968 | , November 26, 1966 | ||||
| 1969 | Man in the Drawer | , April 1968 | |||
| 1970 | , January 11, 1969 | ||||
| 1971 | Twin Bed Bridge | , May 1970 | |||
| 1972 | Strange-Dreaming Charlie, Cow-Eyed Charlie | , March 20, 1971 | |||
| 1973 | McCall's, July 1971 | ||||
| 1974 | Brownstone | , January 27, 1973 | |||
| 1975 | , September 17, 1973 | ||||
| Usurpation (Other People's Stories) | Esquire, May 1974 | ||||
| 1976 | His Son in His Arms, in Light, Aloft | Esquire, August 1975 | |||
| 1977 | , July 26, 1976 | ||||
| Last Courtesies | Harper's Magazine, July 1976 | ||||
| 1978 | , May 2, 1977 | ||||
| 1979 | Getting Serious | , Fall 1977 | |||
| 1980 | , September 25, 1978 | ||||
| 1981 | , May 26, 1980 | ||||
| 1982 | Facing Front | Epoch, Winter 1980 | |||
| 1983 | Ploughshares | ||||
| 1984 | Rosa | , March 21, 1983 | |||
| 1985 | Hot Ice | Antaeus | |||
| Lily | |||||
| 1986 | Kindred Spirits | Esquire, August 1985 | [8] | ||
| 1987 | Fleur | Esquire, August 1986 | |||
| Harper's Magazine, July 1986 | |||||
| 1988 | Errand | , June 1, 1987 | |||
| 1989 | Peacocks | , Winter 1988 | |||
| 1990 | TriQuarterly, Winter 1989 | ||||
| 1991 | , June 11, 1990 | ||||
| 1992 | Puttermesser Paired | , October 8, 1990 | |||
| 1993 | , December 2, 1991 | ||||
| 1994 | Better Be Ready 'Bout Half Past Eight | , January 1993 | |||
| 1995 | New England Review, Spring 1994 | ||||
| 1996 | , October 31, 1994 | ||||
| 1997 | City Life | Ploughshares | |||
| 1998 | People Like That Are the Only People Here | , January 27, 1997 | |||
| 1999 | |||||
| 2000 | Weight | ||||
| 2001 | |||||
| 2002 | McSweeney's | ||||
| 2003 | , June 3, 2002 | |||
| Train Dreams | , Summer 2002 | |||
| 2004 | No award | |||
| 2005 | What You Pawn I Will Redeem | , April 21, 2003 | ||
| Refuge in London | , Winter 2003 | |||
| Mudlavia | , September 2003 | |||
| 2006 | Window | Tin House, Spring 2004 | ||
| Old Boys, Old Girls | , May 3, 2004 | |||
| Passion | , March 22, 2004 | [9] | ||
| 2007 | Galveston Bay, 1826 | Manoa, Winter 2004 | ||
| , May 16, 2005 | ||||
| 2008 | What Do You Want To Know For? | |||
| Folie a Deux | ||||
| Touch | Tin House | |||
| 2009 | Wildwood | |||
| 2010 | Oh, Death | , Spring 2009 | ||
| , September 15, 2008 | ||||
| , December 15, 2008 | ||||
| 2011 | Sunshine | Narrative Magazine | ||
| Something You Can't Live Without | Oxford American | |||
| Your Fate Hurtles Down at You | Electric Literature | |||
| 2012 | Kindness | |||
| Corrie | ||||
| 2013 | Tin House | |||
| Your Duck Is My Duck | Fence | |||
| Tin House | ||||
| 2014 | Granta | |||
| Tin House | ||||
| Opa-locka | ||||
| 2015 | Birdsong from the Radio | |||
| Cabins | Subtropics | |||
| 2016 | Irises | |||
| Train to Harbin | ||||
| Winter, 1965 | BOMB | |||
| 2017 | Too Good to Be True | Harper's | ||
| Secret Lives of the Detainees | ||||
| Buttony | ||||
| 2018 | Tin House | |||
| Counterblast | ||||
| 2019 | Funny Little Snake | |||
| Girl of Few Seasons | Ploughshares Solos | |||
| Omakase | [10] | |||
| 2021 | |||
| 2022 | [12] | ||
| 2023 | |||
| 2024 |