The O. Henry Prize Collection / The Best Short Stories 2022

from the Introduction by Valeria Luiselli

A little over a century ago, in 1919, the first O. Henry series editor, Blanche Colton Williams, explained in an introduction much like this one that the committee of the newly created O. Henry Prize had agreed upon these two seemingly simple rules: the story must be the work of an American author, and must first appear in 1919 in an American publication. One hundred years later one hundred and two, to be precise during what seemed like an eternal second wave of the COVID pandemic, I was asked to guest-edit the following year s iteration of the O. Henry Prizes. One fundamental thing had changed about the prize over the years: the clause American author had been replaced by simply author, and just last year the prize became open to work in translation. That alone was reason enough for me to accept.
 
What had seemed like a simple rule, American author/American publication, had, over the years, accumulated a number of absurd consequences, such as the automatic exclusion of foreign-born authors who had been living, sometimes entire lifetimes, in the United States, or, simply, the exclusion of authors who were published and read widely in the United States and therefore formed part of the literary culture except that they didn t have a U.S. birth certificate. This exclusion of course persists, even today, in several national prizes.
 
The idea of a national literature as a monolithic, pure, uncontaminated collection of work by people who hold the same passport is ludicrous. Imposing upon literature rules written in some government office, in a nation s obscure and labyrinthine immigration system, is not only absurd but simply contrary to the very nature of literature. And part of that nature is to travel across borders, despite borders. We write and read not in order to engage with an idea of nationhood but to engage with the human soul and human stories more generally. But somehow we continue to nod to the

Foreword by Jenny Minton Quigley, series editor
Introduction by Valeria Luiselli, guest editor

“Screen Time,” by Alejandro Zambra,
translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

“The Wolves of Circassia,” by Daniel Mason

“Mercedes’s Special Talent,” by Tere Dávila,
translated from the Spanish by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed

“Rainbows,” by Joseph O’Neill

“A Way with Bea,” by Shanteka Sigers

“Seams,” by Olga Tokarczuk,
translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft
 
“The Little Widow from the Capital,” by Yohanca Delgado

“Lemonade,” by Eshkol Nevo,
translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston
 
“Breastmilk,” by ‘Pemi Aguda

“The Old Man of Kusumpur,” by Amar Mitra,
translated from the Bengali by Anish Gupta

“Where They Always Meet,” by Christos Ikonomou,
translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich

“Fish Stories,” by Janika Oza

“Horse Soup,” by Vladimir Sorokin,
translated from the Russian by Max Lawton

“Clean Teen,” by Francisco González

“Dengue Boy,” by Michel Nieva,
translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

“Zikora,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Apples,” by Gunnhild Øyehaug,
translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson
 
“Warp and Weft,” by David Ryan

“Face Time,” by Lorrie Moore

“An Unlucky Man,” by Samanta Schweblin,
translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Edited and with an introduction by Valeria Luiselli Jenny Minton Quigley, Series Editor

"Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction."  The Atlantic Monthly

These stories surprise and illuminate.   Publishers Weekly