The O. Henry Prize Stories 2019

by Laura Furman (Editor)

Now celebrating its centenary, this prestigious annual anthology gathers the twenty best new short stories published in the previous year. An Anchor Books Original.

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2019--continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence--contains twenty prize-winning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. The winning writers are an impressive mix of celebrated names and new, emerging voices. Their stories evoke lives both near and distant, in settings ranging from Jamaica, Houston, and Hawaii to a Turkish coal mine and a drought-ridden Northwestern farm, and feature an engaging array of characters, including Laotian refugees, a Columbian kidnap victim, an eccentric Irish schoolteacher, a woman haunted by a house that cleans itself, and a strangely long-lived rabbit. The uniformly breathtaking stories are accompanied by essays from the eminent jurors on their favorites, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.

Prize Jurors 2019: Lynn Freed, Elizabeth Strout, Lara Vapynar

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Collections, School

457 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2019

About the author

Laura J. Furman (born 1945) is an American author best known for her role as series editor for the O. Henry Awards prize story collection. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Mirabella, Ploughshares, Southwest Review.

She has written three collections of stories (The Glass House, Watch Time Fly, and Drinking with the Cook), two novels (The Shadow Line and Tuxedo Park), and a memoir (Ordinary Paradise).

She founded American Short Fiction, which was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing. Most recently, she has announced that she has submitted a collection of short stories to her agent, and the subsequent collection will be her first new work to follow the release of 2001's Drinking with the Cook.

Reviews

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As might be expected with an anthology like this, there's a range of story, and for me, at least, it is pretty near impossible to imagine thoroughly enjoying each and every story within that range. However, there were several that really shone masterfully. No Spanish, about a father who decrees that his Basque family will speak only that language, now that it has been outlawed, despite the fact none of them speak their ancestral tongue at the moment. It's comic and sad and absurd and political, the daughter rebelling against the rebellion. Girl of Few Seasons was a heart-breaker. An impoverished young Hawaiian man carries the guilt for his sister's mental infirmity to the point where he opts to serve in Vietnam only so it will allow him a flight to the island where his sister is confined in an institution he has been unable to visit. Julia and Sunny was an enjoyable change of pace, written in second person plural that felt natural despite its off-centred sound to the ear. It's about a couple that witnesses the breakup of two of their best friends. It's such a smooth read that the lack of real gravity (for me, at least) in this story made it all the more of a marvel at how compelled I was to turn the pages. Omakase was similar, a small story of a couple going out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, infusing racial undercurrents and the child of immigrant influence to successfully build tension in the relationship, so that the reader wonders if this couple will survive. Unstuck was also intriguing, a woman who believes her house is haunted, quite possibly by the unseen person who rescued after she'd gotten stuck in a tight slot canyon. Aguacero, about the daughter of Colombian immigrants encountering a Colombian ex-pat, both of them traumatized by what their ancestral country's cruel traumas, and therefore drawn to each other despite the age difference and the young woman's skepticism about the man's motives. And Lagomorph, about a man's relationship with a rabbit. Haha. OK, the family rabbit, but now the kids are gone, and he and his wife have divorced, and this rabbit continues to linger on somewhat enigmatically, and a certain ambivalence in the man's affection for it perhaps mirroring the ambivalence he felt in his marriage once he and his wife were alone with each other.

It was a diverse collection, with enough successful stories, in an array of styles, that I found it really satisfying despite the few stories that didn't grab me.

[Raechel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction, but something about this collection drew me in. I purposefully made myself read it slowly and I think that helped a lot. It gave me room to think about the stories and what they could mean. I think this will be my preferred way to read collections from now on.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading the O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories for over 10 years, and this is by far the strongest collection yet. I will likely reread 12 of the 20 stories. My favourites were by Tessa Hadley, Alexia Arthurs, and Weike Wang. Flowers for America by Doua Thao was almost a novella, and memorable.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The O. Henry Prize Stories are culled from across the breadth of journals and magazines that publish short fiction. As such, the twenty stories are diverse in length, perspective, and style. It’s unlikely that any one reader will be a fan of all the stories in this collection, but for that same reason this collection is thought-provoking. It is a good volume for a contemplative reader who is willing to consume it in smaller bites, affording each story its own space.

I found the stories which reached outside the US to be the most intriguing, particularly “No Spanish” and “Flowers for America.” It is sometimes difficult but always rewarding to spend time in the minds of the stories’ characters, particularly when the narrator is of questionable reliability. Complementing the stories themselves are the literary commentaries provided both by the collection editor and the authors themselves. Readers enjoying these stories will also find the resource list of short fiction periodicals a good source for future reads.

[Imran Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading short stories. They are compact and pack a punch. As a reader, a realistic, even melancholy story resonates with me.

So when I came across this collection of short stories at my local library it didn't take much convincing for me to borrow.

Ok, so no reader will like each and every story in a compilation. Nonetheless, I expected more from such an exalted collection.

To be sure, there were a several standouts which made reading the entire book worthwhile.

The collection is noticeable for another reason, the geographical breadth of the authors. While all stories must be written originally in English quite a few are set in non-English speaking countries such as Laos, Turkey, etc.

Despite my three stars I recommend this book to readers whom enjoy short stories. Finding that one special story makes the effort to read all the others worthwhile!

[Lisa Allen Thakur · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first foray into short stories was quite enjoyable.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2019 edition of The O. Henry Prize Stories is a solid volume of good tales, a few great tales (in my opinion of course), and a surprisingly-diverse authorial selection, often with only tangential American connections, if any.

Here's an excerpt from one of the great stories, 'Funny Little Snake':

Valerie was getting to know how he used exaggerated expressions like "sink of iniquity," whose sense she didn't know but could guess at, as if he were partly making fun of his own disapproval, while at the same time he furiously meant it. He stayed one step ahead of any fixed position, so that no one could catch him out in it... Sometimes, when Gil laughed, you could see how he might have been a different man if he hadn't chosen to e this professor with his stooping bulk and crumpled, shapeless suits, his braying, brilliant talk. Without glasses, his face was naked and keen and boyish, with a boy's shame, as if the nakedness must be smothered like a secret.

- Page 6


3.7 Stars





Story-by-Story Mini-Breakdown, Notes, and Thoughts (spoilers)


1) *- 'Funny Little Snake' - Tessa Hadley
- Great description and very smart writing
- Great story, complex characters, not cliché
- British. A young typist step-mother narrator, chosen by a brilliant historian who came from a working class background, a quiet and sad daughter, and a hedonistic biological mother who sleeps with young men and does drugs 4.4/5 or so

2) 'Synchronicity' - John Keeble
- a look at dry-farming in Washington State. Flora, fauna, bad omens, forest fires, loose buffalo. A bit empty -- like the land. Very rural. 3/5

3) 'No Spanish' - Moira McCavana
- A Basque father in Spain (Guernica) decides his family will only speak Basque, not Spanish, but they don't really know anything but Spanish (during Franco's regime, learning Basque was illegal).
- The process of learning a new language and an interesting view on life
- Disappointing ending 3/5

4) 'Girl of Few Seasons' - Rachel Kondo
- Hawaii in the 60s or 70s. A very poor indigenous Hawaiian family with a house
- Ebo is enlisting for the Vietnam War. His young sister was tragically-hospitalized due to bacterial meningitis, and the brain damage is partially Ebo's fault. Tragi-sweet story. 3/5

5) 'Julia and Sunny' - Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
- The break-up of a seemingly-perfect couple from the perspective of a friend and fellow med-school grad. The narrator is utterly-obsessed with Sunny and Julia. Sunny, six years older, razzle-dazzled everyone with his cooking, wit, humour etc. Rambles about a children's blanket, quite dull at times, boring resolution. 3/5

6) 'Unstuck' - Stephanie Reents
- A woman, with a part-time boyfriend arrangement, becomes stuck in a slot canyon -- and in life in her new, shitty, cheap house. Her house mysteriously cleans itself, just as a mysterious stranger saved her in the canyon. Is she becoming unstuck? Is it her changing relationship with her boyfriend, as they grow closer? Is she losing her mind? I don't know. 3+/5

7) 'Mermaid River' - Alexia Arthurs
- Jamaican-American story. Starts with the main character reuniting with their mother as a child in the US. Back-and-forth between childhood in Jamaica and the present in New York -- but mostly about his relationship with his grandmother, who died, and who had raised him. A good story, if a bit boring... Loss/grandparents/generations/empathy/etc. 3.7/5

8) 'Bad Girl' - Valerie O'Riordan
- Takes place in a fictional suburb of Manchester, England, with Irish elements. An alternative drama school.
- Cheryl: her stepdad owns a pub, her mom was hit by a bus. She's absent from school and troubled. Lots of girl drama as well. Written as a response to Margaret Atwood's "Cat's Eye". Weird vocabulary, such as 'spod' (151) and 'mardy strop' (153).
- Friendship, sex, vulnerability, grief, trauma
- Could make a good, not great, high school-appropriate story, though the weird Englishness may put students off 3.5/4

9) 'Aguacero' - Patricia Engel
- A good beginning, where two Columbians meet in New York. Becomes a barely-fictional look at Columbian kidnappings and their effects. Trauma. 3.5/5

10) 'Soma' - Kenan Orhan
- a teen studies and competes in swimming in a coal mining town in rural Turkey. Descriptive, but a bit dull. The main character, Izzet, leaves town during a mining disaster to compete in a race to cross the Dardanelles. His best friend, who trained him and works in the mine is betrayed. Erdogan shows up and people throw rocks at his car. Izzet should escape the mining town cycle of terrible working-class life with his swimming skills, but won't. Destiny, tragedy, choices, friendship. 3.5/5

11) 'Goodnight Nobody' - Sarah Hall
- A 12 year old girl in England lives with a night-shift morgue mother and her grandmother. A baby was killed by a neighbourhood dog.. 1990s? More a glimpse at life than an event arc. Trauma, mortality, death. 3+/5

* 12) '610 North, 610 West' - Bryan Washington
- Houston. Growing up in a diner, West Indies/Mexican. The main character is a son, talking mostly about his father cheating on his mother, and they go to see the other woman. A glimpse at a rough, colourful life. 3.8/5
- Could work with mature high school students

13) 'Mr Can'aan' - Isabella Hammad
- Palestinian. A man found a body years ago and then somehow runs into its granddaughter in a hooka cafe in Geneva many years later. Ok... 2.8/5

* 14) 'Omakase' - Weike Wang
- A relatively-new couple to to a tiny Harlem sushi place (Chinese woman/American man). The narrator, the woman, relates elements of their relationship while they are served multiple surprise courses of sushi by a highlt-talented Japanese chef. Very good. 4.4/5

*15) 'Prime' - Caoilinn Hughes
- Irish. Miss Lynch, a teacher in a small rural school somewhere (probably Ireland). Post student death tragedy... she may be losing her mind. A strange writing style. Demanding, powerful. She is trying to help her class and herself get over the death of a student. TRAUMA. Death. Education. Mental Health, etc. 4.4/5

16) 'Slingshot' - Souvankham Thammavongsa
- A 70 year old woman hangs out with her 32 year old male neighbour and it gets sexual. Simple, stilted writing. Surprising, anti-ageismish. 3.7/5

* 17) 'The Shrew Tree' - Liza Ward
- A teen girl coming of age in farm town high school. Her father is an older man, and the non-violent VP of the school. Her mother has a nasty wasting disease. She falls in love with the strong, silent farmer's boy next door. Flashes of their (disappointing) future life to come are shown. 4/5

18) 'Flowers for America' - Doua Thao
- Hmong woman in Laos post Vietnam War. The family leaves for America, but she stays behind with her young daughter to find her husband. A story of post-war survivors, doing what it takes for your family in situations of poverty and trauma. 3.7/5

19) 'Lagomorph' - Alexander McLeod
- A man in the Maritimes, his pet rabbit, and bits about life with his separated wife. Non-stop family life wore them down. The author lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia! 3.7/5

20) 'Maps and Ledgers' - John Edgar Wideman
- Bits of history and racist reality for a Black family written in massive run-on sentences with many commas and sort of street speak... missing words. Good bits though. 3.5/5

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trigger. Warning

While there are a few wonderful stories in this collection and many with incredibly beautiful prose, , there are more than a few that contain scenes of graphic, horrific violence to small animals. Coincidence? I think not. I'm an avid reader of short story collections in many different genres for over 30 years and I've never read a collection containing more stories that left me sickened. The only conclusion I can draw is that the person who selected the stories gets a kick out of this. Nauseating.

[Halcyon-Days · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection will stay with me for a long time. "Flowers for America" by Doua Thao especially was masterful. I read it slowly over a period of perhaps a month. I couldn't bring myself to rush it. "Maps and Ledgers" by John Edgar Wideman was excellent. "Soma" by Kenan Orhan crushed something in me I might never be able to repair, and I think that's probably the mark of a really excellent short story. These works are all very different, and I would highly recommend reading them all, even if you don't like them, just to see what a short story craft takes and gives.

[Lauryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My plan was to finish this before 2019 ended but it took me f o r e v e r to get through Flowers for America and then the last few stories because I just didn't care anymore. For me, all of the powerful and poignant stories lived in the first half of the book. What resonates with me? Women, teen girls, young girls, relationships between women, sex and sexuality. The stories I bookmarked: Funny Little Snake, Julia and Sunny, Unstuck, Bad Girl, Omakase, Prime (maybe my fave?), and The Shrew Tree.

[Mobius · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best story was "Prime". That one was a 5/5 on its own because of its mystic nature. The other stories ranged from boring to okay. Two interesting ones were "The Shew Tree" and "Lagomorph". The rest are just not particularly profound.

[Bull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I've been spoiled (spoilt?). The 2018 collection was so much better ... better stories, better prose, better characters on the whole. Yes, there were a few in this collection that I enjoyed -- Funny Little Snake, Omakase -- but not close to the number I expect from a selection of the 'best.'

[Eliot Barnhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite stories: "Bad Girl" by Valerie O'Riordan, "Omakase" by Weike Wang, "Lagomorph" by Alexander MacLeod

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This was an ARC provided in exchange for a fair review.)

I love short story collections. They are great starting point for exploring new writers; they are easy to pick up and read (not necessary to stay up all night!); and the variety makes for interesting reading.

Two of the stories first appeared in The New Yorker and I had, by chance, read both of them. And enjoyed them again. Funny Little Snake was both a heart-rending and a heart-warming tale of parenting & marriage gone wrong. A young woman & an unrelated child find a connection through the drama that surprisingly unites them. Omakase was totally different: the interaction of a Chinese-American woman & her white American boyfriend with the Japanese sushi chef feeding them. All her doubts come to the fore, all the doubts, embarrassments and pride about a partner, heightened by the events of the dining experience.

These stories cover the melancholy of the mismatched ages in a sexual dalliance (Slingshot), or the mismatched perceptions of two teens in The Shrew Tree, or the lengths Laotian refugees in Thailand go through to survive in Flowers for America, the view of a couple’s evolving relationship through the life of their pet rabbit (Lagomorph) and a married couple’s disorientation when their ideal couple divorces (Julia & Sunny). A young black man trying to move beyond his own family’s history comes to recognize that his pretense doesn’t change his life (Maps & Ledgers), just as a father’s decree that the family will learn Basque doesn’t stop his daughter’s yearning for the sounds of Spanish (No Spanish).
And there are a couple of oddly amusing stories to lighten the tone. Unstuck tells of the aftermath of a woman getting stuck in a canyon of the Middle Fork of the Leprechaun River, and her house starts cleaning itself. Synchronicity combines buffalo and survivalists in Montana with normal folk in Western Washington to strange effect.
Bad Girl and Goodnight Nobody both deal with girls dealing with the rough side of life. Aguacero and Soma deal with different aspects of political dissent while Mr. Can’aan deals with recapturing family history.
And then there is the very sad story of A Girl of Few Seasons, where a moment’s actions have haunted a young man the rest of his life.

I enjoyed every story, each for its own reasons. I did find that there seemed to be an overlying atmosphere of sadness in many of these tales: not necessarily a bad thing.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it difficult to review anthology collections, because inevitably there were will be stories you enjoy and stories you don’t. Averaged together thIS anthology was probably just okay, but I think that’s an unfair assessment of a collection that had its fair share of gems, duds, and meh’s. I tended to like the stories that had more narrative tension, and were grounded firmly on characters’ relationships. “Omakase” was one of the better ones for that reason, depicting an uncomfortable Omakase date which revealed quite a lot about the dining couple. Some of the other stories I enjoyed were “Funny Little Snake” (the relationships shown here were between mom, stepmom, and daughter, and as the story unfolds you’ll find your heart both breaking and warming) and “Julia and Sunny” (a very cleverly told story, as a couple recounts the dissolution of their friends’ marriage – it was almost gossipy in its tone, but utterly compelling). There were some not so good ones, where I found the style too distracting (“Maps and Ledgers” really could have used more punctuation IMO) or I felt like I was missing the point (“Unstuck” was… a metaphor? A ghost story? Just didn’t land with me). I did appreciate the diversity of the curation though, as the authors and settings came from around the world. I would probably give it 2.5 stars, but I rounded up for the overall experience.

[Jim Manis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The usual high quality work and, keeping with the trend of the past few years, with more diversity than ever. This not only includes a diversity of authorship but of national origin and notably of narrative voices. There was a time when distinguishing between authors almost required one to look frequently and the header on the page to see that the author's name was different from the one in the preceding story. This is no longer true. I can't decide whether the stories are actually any better or if the quality is the same. Maybe even slightly worse? If there is a difference, it's marginal at most.

A good many years ago, one of my students asked me who my favorite authors were. "Once you reach 40," I told him, "if you've done a diligent job of reading, and you've been thoughtful in your selections and challenged yourself, you no longer have favorites." Or as I've heard many mature writers say, it's who you're reading at the moment.

[Allison Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Writing for me is one means of making my way around a world that always changes, a world different each time I look...keeping track, locating, accounting, managing the chaos of time." - John Edgar Wideman on his story, Maps and Ledgers.

I struggled to get through the first half of this collection, but somewhere between A Girl of Few Seasons by Marie Kondo, Mermaid River by Alexia Arthur, Omakase by Weike Wang, and The Shrew Tree by Liza Ward, I got my tour of the world. My momentary foray into the minds of the characters put to page by this diverse, lauded set of writers. While I'm ready to get onto some lighter reading for the summer, I know I'll be revisiting the morsels of these stories I've saved from time to time. In the way I learn how (not) to wear my age. In the way I remember my roots. In the way I appreciate the little in between moments and the essential ingredients that make a place feel like home, regardless of whether it's where you were born.

[Robert Yokoyama · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love short stories that introduce me to new words and places. The Japanese word omakase is new to me. It is a meal that is chosen by the chef. I love to eat a meal in this manner. I love the description of food in this story. Lagomorph is another word for a rabbit. It is a great story about a couple caring for a pet rabbit. The story "Girl of Few Seasons" is set on the island of Maui. It is very touching story about a young soldier's relationship with his mentally disabled sister. "Soma" is a great story about the pernicious plight of working in the coal mines of Turkey. "Flowers For America" is a touching story about how a widowed mother in Cambodia struggles to make a living selling orchids and catching fish. All of these stories are insightful and moving to me.

[Coco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving this four stars because great stories but where are the genre fiction? Sci-fi and fantasy are mad and Ursula K. le Guin is too.

The standouts for me:

Funny Little Snake by Tessa Hadley (!)
Synchronicity by John Keeble
Aguacero by Patricia Engel
Goodnight Nobody by Sarah Hall
Omakase Weike Wang (!)
Lagomorph by Alexander MacLeod (!)
Slingshot by Souvankham Thammavongsa (!)

Special shout out to Moira McCavana for having her first published story win the O Henry and for being recent Harvard English alum. Setting the bar the highest it actually could be.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, stories were hit or miss, but I wondered generally if perhaps I wasn't reading carefully enough to pick up on what surely must have been some of the nuances the writers had intended. My favorite story by far was Flowers for America. My least favorite by a mile was Prime. Felt to me like it was just a stream of consciousness, but in reading the authors note, apparently I was way off base.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This diverse collection probably has something for everyone. I didn’t like each story, some I loved, several I liked, and a few didn’t resonate with me at all. Standouts to me were Funny Little Snake, Girl of Few Seasons, Soma, and Mr. Can’aan. One thing I appreciated was the essays the jurors wrote about their favorite stories—I found it interesting to read their insights as writers. Each writer also provided a short reflection of their own on their story which also was interesting to read.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

***½ this year. I read this collection most years, and was thrilled to win a copy in a Goodreads giveaway!

One thing I love about the O. Henry Prize collection each year is the author insights at the back of the book. While this year's collection wasn't un-putdowanable for me, there were a few standout stories that I really enjoyed and all of the stories are well written.

[Smriti · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a collection of short stories usually does, it contains some hits and misses. Three of them stuck with me. Funny Little Snake is absorbing, with its young, flawed, but sympathetic protagonist. Soma, about a single-minded desire for another, better life. Omakase, that narrates facts as they happen while telling a story beyond them.

[Randy Garry · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Disappointing collection of short stories. Tried the first six stories. What I read of them was disappointing and told in poor manners. So I quit reading each one. For the next one, I read the whole thing and found it equally disappointing. At that point, I gave up. Hence the “DNF” (Did Not Finish).

[Julia Winberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book was the myriad of voices the editors selected; characters were diverse and there were several stories about people of color and from all around the world— my favorite stories were “Julia and Sunny,” “Soma,” and “Prime.”

[Mitsuru · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the following stories:
"Funny Little Snake" by Tessa Hadley, "Aguacero" by Patricia Engel, "The Shrew Tree" by Liza Ward, "Flowers for America" by Duoa Thao, and "Lagomorph" by Alexander MacLeod.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this for book club, and I'll confess to not being a big fan of short stories. There were a few in here that I really liked (Funny Little Snake, Mr. Can'aan, Omakase), a few that I really disliked, and the rest were so-so.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice collection of stories with a strikingly diverse set of voices.

Top five:
Julia and Sunny - Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Unstuck - Stephanie Reents
The Shrew Tree - Liza Ward
Lagomorph - Alexander MacLeod
Maps and Ledgers - John Edgar Wideman

[Vipassana]

As far as anthologies go, this one is decent. It introduced me to a few writers whose longer work I'd like to read. The stories by Moira McCavana, Sarah Hall, Alexander MacLeod, Liza Ward, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Doua Thao were my favourites.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half the stories were deserving.