Prize Stories 1993: The O'Henry Awards (The O. Henry Prize Collection) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385425325 ISBN 13: 9780385425322

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1993

Synopsis

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious award for short fiction.”—The Atlantic Monthly

Established in 1918 as a memorial to the master of the short story genre, O. Henry, Prize Stories has long been recognized as the premier forum for the contemporary story. The volume for 1993 carries forth the time-honored literary tradition in 23 selections as original and varied as the current trends in short fiction. The top prize for 1993 is awarded to Thom Jones’s “The Pugilist at Rest,” which explores the interior depths of depression through the eyes of Vietnam vet and former Marine boxing champion. Other stories in this collection include:

Andrea Lee “Winter Barley”
William F. Van Wert “Shaking”
Joyce Carol Oates “Goose-Girl”
Charles Eastman “Yellow Flags”
Cornelia Nixon “Risk”
Rilla Askew “The Killing Blanket”
Antonya Nelson “Dirty Words”
John H. Richardson “The Pink House”
Diane Levenberg “A Modern Love Story”
John Van Kirk “Newark Job”
Alice Adams “The Islands”
Stephen Dixon “The Rare Muscovite”
Lorrie Moore “Charades”
Kate Wheeler “Improving My Average”
Peter Weltner “The Greek Head”
C. E. Poverman “The Man Who Died”
Jennifer Egan “Puerto Vallarta”
Charles Johnson “Kwoon”
Linda Svendsen “The Edger Man”
Daniel Stern “The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka: A Story”
Josephine Jacobsen “The Pier-Glass”
Steven Schwarz “Madagascar”

About this title

About the Author:

Born in 1919, William Abrahams published four successful novels and a number of poems before finding his true calling as an editor. He presided over the O. Henry Awards for more than 30 years starting in 1965. Abrahams also worked as the west coast editor of Atlantic Monthly Press and collaborated on nonfiction books with his partner, Peter Stansky. He passed away in 1998.

From Kirkus Reviews:

After a whiz-bang performance by its cousin, the Best American Short Stories series (1992's volume chosen by Robert Stone), it's interesting to find only one replication here: the first-prize- winning ``The Pugilist at Rest,'' by Thom Jones--a risky, vagrant, powerful meditation on force and violence. But where the Stone was chockablock with fine stories that complemented Jones's, Abrahams' collection makes it stand out all the more for the weakness of its fellows. Andrea Lee's ``Winter Barley''--a shifting group of vignettes about a May-December romance (same subject as Antonya Nelson's ``Dirty Words'' here)--makes an impression with its dense style and lush sensibility, but finally is unable to make any conglomerative effect. Most else included here does make an effect- -but a thin, singular, sentimental one: there's a raft of stories about adult and aging parents (by Charles Eastman, John H. Richardson, Linda Svendsen, Lorrie Moore--are we seeing a new genre: the Long-Term-Care story?); a weak one by Peter Weltner concerning AIDS; and small-bore work by Alice Adams, Stephen Dixon, and Joyce Carol Oates. Meanwhile, C.E. Poverman's ``The Man Who Died''--a professor accused of sexual harassment--is a bit too trumped up yet exposes stark, disturbing sides; and Charles Johnson's ``Kwoon''--a storefront martial-arts school; knowledge as power--is compelling. On the whole, though, this is a tepid bunch of tales-- harvested from what we know (thanks to its counterpart anthology) was a richer field than is suggested here. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0385425325
• ISBN 13: 9780385425322
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: William Abrahams