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 Archived 2008-06-19 at the Wayback Machine 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