The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners

by Amor Towles (Editor), Jenny Minton Quigley (Editor)

Overview

“A diverse and glorious selection . . . a gift of imagination, wit, and wonder. The collection is filled with miniature masterpieces. . . .  This must-have anthology is a treasure trove not to be missed.” —Library Journal (starred review)

The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by Kate DiCamillo, Jess Walter, Dave Eggers, Allegra Goodman, Jai Chakrabarti, Francisco Gonzalez, and more.

Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Amor Towles has brought his own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Towles, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.

THE WINNING STORIES

“Roy,” Emma Binder
“The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” Michele Mari (translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore)
“Orphans,” Brad Felver
“The Home Visit,” Morris Collins
“The Import,” Jai Chakrabarti
“Didi,” Amber Caron
“Serranos,” Francisco González
“Hiding Spot,” Caroline Kim
“Junior,” Katherine D. Stutzman
“My Good Friend,” Juliana Leite (translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry)
"The Castle of Rose Tellin,” Kate DiCamillo
"Rain,” Colin Barrett
“Marital Problems,” Robin Romm
“The Last Grownup,” Allegra Goodman
“The Honor of Your Presence,” Dave Eggers
“The Paper Artist,” E. K. Ota
“The Room-Service Waiter,” Tom Crewe
“Seeing Through Maps,” Madeline ffitch
“The Dark,” Jess Walter
“Mobilization,” Allegra Hyde

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593470619
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	33,730
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

AMOR TOWLES iis the author of the New York Times bestselling novels The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility, and a bestselling story collection, Table for Two. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages.

JENNY MINTON QUIGLEY is the author of a memoir, The Early Birds, and editor of the anthology Lolita in the Afterlife. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, sons, and dogs.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Amor Towles

“Roy,” Emma Binder
“The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” Michele Mari, translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore
“Orphans,” Brad Felver
“The Home Visit,” Morris Collins
“The Import,” Jai Chakrabarti
“Didi,” Amber Caron
“Serranos,” Francisco González
“Hiding Spot,” Caroline Kim
“Junior,” Katherine D. Stutzman
“My Good Friend,” Juliana Leite, translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry
"The Castle of Rose Tellin,” Kate DiCamillo
"Rain,” Colin Barrett
“Marital Problems,” Robin Romm
“The Last Grownup,” Allegra Goodman
“The Honor of Your Presence,” Dave Eggers
“The Paper Artist,” E. K. Ota
“The Room-Service Waiter,” Tom Crewe
“Seeing Through Maps,” Madeline ffitch
“The Dark,” Jess Walter
“Mobilization,” Allegra Hyde

The O. Henry Prize Winners 2024: The Writers on Their Work
Publisher’s Note: A Brief History of the O. Henry Prize
How the Stories Are Chosen
Afterword by Jenny Minton Quigley
Publications Submitted

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/01/2024

The O. Henry Award is the oldest major prize for short fiction, and one of the most respected. The list of past winners is a who's who of American fiction: William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, John Cheever, Kevin Brockmeier, Mary Swan, John Edgar Wideman, Cynthia Ozick, Raymond Carver, Stephen King. In this edition of the annual collection, edited and introduced by Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow; Table for Two), readers get a diverse and glorious selection of the best short fiction published in 2023. It's not limited to American voices either; there are stories translated from Italian and Portuguese, originally published in the New Yorker and the Paris Review. This volume constitutes a celebration of the art of writing and a command of the short story form: a gift of imagination, wit, and wonder. The collection is filled with miniature masterpieces. The opening story, "Roy" by Emma Binder (first published in the lit mag Gulf Coast), is an oddly exhilarating tale of alienation, longing, and dread that feels like something out of Flannery O'Connor, told by the love child of Marilynne Robinson and Cormac McCarthy. VERDICT This must-have anthology is a treasure trove not to be missed.—Herman Sutter

Library Journal