Prize Stories 1991: The O. Henry Awards

by William Abrahams

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1991  collects 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. “The Sandstone Farmhouse” by John Updike, which tells of a difficult relationship of a son and his mother over 50 years, takes the coveted top prize. The other stories in this collection

Joyce Carol Oates “The Swimmers”
Sharon Sheehe Stark “Overland”
Martha Lacy Hall “The Apple-Green Triumph”
Wayne Johnson “Hippies, Indians, Buffalo”
Perri Klass “For Women Everywhere”
Helen Norris “Raisin Faces”
Patricia Lear “Powwow”
Charles Baxter “Saul and Patsy Are Pregnant”
Sylvia A. Watanabe “Talking to the Dead”
T. Alan Broughton “Ashes”
Diane Levenberg “The Ilui”
Ursula K. Le Guin “Hand, Cup, Shell”
Alice Adams “Earthquake Damage”
Charlotte Zoë Walker “The Very Pineapple”
Ronald Sukenick “Ecco”
Dennis McFarland “Nothing to Ask For”
Millicent Dillon “Oil and Water”
Marly Swick “Moscow Nights”
Thomas Fox Averill “During the Twelfth Summer of Elmer D. Peterson”

“This collection is both meritorious and diverse. The work ranges from plainly written stories brimming with resonant significance to full-blown extravaganzas. . . . Recommended.”— Library Journal

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Suzanne]

I enjoyed very few of the 20 stories in this collection, in spite of contributions by heavy hitters such as John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ursula Le Guin. In fact, I skipped a couple.

However, I did absolutely love a story called "Overland," about a long bus trip, by Sharon Sheehe Stark which had been published in Boulevard Magazine in Spring 1990. She taught writing in the MFA program at Vermont College and I looked up where I could find more of her work. She wrote a story collection called The Dealers' Yard and a novel, A Wrestling Season, and apparently she placed many other stories in various lit magazines over the years before passing away in November 2023 at the age of 81. On the basis of the talent demonstrated in "Overland," I will be keeping an eye out for old publications containing her work. So Prize Stories 1991 wasn't a complete waste of time.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love 1991; computers are such foreign, distrusted things. There’s still tape and typewriters and good old fashioned story-telling ways of unreliable communication.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

a collection, and so

[Tamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites:
The Apple-Green Triumph - Martha Lacy Hall
Raisin Faces - Helen Norris
Hippies, Indians, Buffalo - Wayne Johnson
Moscow Nights - Marly Swick
Powwow - Patricia Lear
For Women Everywhere - Perri Klass
Nothing to Ask For - Dennis McFarland
Saul and Patsy Are Pregnant - Charles Baxter