Prize Stories, the Best of 1998: The O. Henry Awards

by Andrea Barrett and Larry Dark

Book Overview

Established in 1918 as a memorial to O. Henry, this annual literary tradition has presented a remarkable offering of stories over its 82-year history. O. Henry first-prize winners have included Dorothy Parker, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, John Cheever, John Updike, and Cynthia Ozick as well as some lesser-known writers such as Alison Baker and Cornelia Nixon. Many talented writers who were known when first chosen for an O. Henry Award later went...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385489587
• ISBN13: 9780385489584
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Good, but better story collections out there

One or two were amazing, and most were good, but I wasn't crazy about the somewhat snotty ("we're all so well-read and a good STORY doesn't matter") attitude of the editor, which showed through in the selection.

A Perfect Teacher for Beginning Short Story Writers

Though I majored in English, I never took a creative writing course while in college. When I started writing fiction a few years ago, I knew that I couldn't enter an MFA program because I'm a full-time attorney with a family to feed and a mortgage to pay. So, I decided that I should read as much fiction as possible to help teach myself the craft of writing. One of the books I purchased was the then-new 1998 Prize Stories: The O'Henry Awards. I couldn't have made a better choice! In this one volume, I read Lorrie Moore's heartbreaking "People Like That Are the Only People Here," Steven Millhauser's chilling "The Knife Thrower," Alice Munro's evocative "The Children Stay," among many other wonderful and powerful fiction from The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, Harper's, and others. Larry Dark, the series editor, and the prize jury, Andrea Barrett, Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody, did a wonderful job pulling together the best short fiction of that year. This collection not only gave me great joy as a reader, but also wonderful lessons in the art and craft of fiction writing.

Cutting-edge short fiction.

Excellent collection of cutting-edge short fiction. If you want to see the extreme edges of today's scene and what, hopefully, is the future of short fiction, buy this collection every year. Extremely compelling work, wide variety of styles, and not the same old names.

Dark has revitalized the series!

As an avid reader of the O.Henry series, I felt that it was in a bit of a rut until this new editor, Larry Dark came along. Last year and especially this year, the O. Henry has become exciting and cutting edge, and Dark must be given all the credit. C'est magnefique Monseiur Dark!!

"Dark is a creative god..."

If you are only able to read one book this year make it this book, I just want to thank you Mr.Dark for being the creative god that you are!