The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003

Since its establishment in 1919, the O. Henry Prize stories collection has offered an exciting selection of the best stories published in hundreds of literary magazines every year. Such classic works of American literature as Ernest Hemingway'sThe Killers(1927); William Faulkner'sBarn Burning(1939); Carson McCuller'sA Tree. A Rock. A Cloud(1943); Shirley Jackson'sThe Lottery(1949); J.D. Salinger'sFor Esme with Love and Squalor(1963); John Cheever'sThe Country Husband(1956) ; and Flannery O'Conner'sEverything that Rises Must Converge(1963) all were O. Henry Prize stories. An accomplished new series editor--novelist and short story writer Laura Furman--has read more than a thousand stories to identify the 20 winners, each one a pleasure to read today, each one a potential classic.The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003also contains brief essays from each of the three distinguished judges on their favorite story, and comments from the prize-winning writers on what inspired their stories. There is nothing like the ever rich, surprising, and original O. Henry collection for enjoying the contemporary short story. The Thing in the ForestA. S. Byatt The Shell CollectorAnthony Doerr Burn Your MapsRobyn Jay Leff LushBradford Morrow God's GoodnessMarjorie Kemper Bleed Blue in IndonesiaAdam Desnoyers The StoryEdith Pearlman Swept AwayT. Coraghessan Boyle MeanwhileAnn Harleman Three Days. A Month. More.Douglas Light The High RoadJoan Silber Election EveEvan S. Connell Irish GirlTim Johnston What Went WrongTim O'Brien The American EmbassyChimamanda Ngozi Adichie KissingWilliam Kittredge Sacred StatuesWilliam Trevor Two WordsMolly Giles FathersAlice Munro Train DreamsDenis Johnson

Laura Furman's work has appeared in <i>The New Yorker</i>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, <i>Ploughshares</i>, <i>The Yale Review</i>, and other magazines. She is the founding editor of the highly regarded <i>American Short Fiction</i> (three-time finalist for the American Magazine Award). A professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, she teaches in the graduate James A. Michener Center for writers. She lives in Austin.