Synopses & Reviews
An annual collection of the twenty best contemporary short stories selected by series editor Laura Furman from hundreds of literary magazines, The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008 is studded with extraordinary settings and characters: a teenager in survivalist Alaska, the seed keeper of a doomed Chinese village, a young woman trying to save her life in a Ukrainian internet café. Also included are the winning writers' comments on what inspired them, a short essay from each of the three eminent jurors, and an extensive resource list of literary magazines.
About the Author
Laura Furman's work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, and other magazines. She is the founding editor of the highly regarded American Short Fiction (three time finalist for the American Magazine Award). A professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, she teaches in the graduate James A. Michener Center for writers. She lives in Austin.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Laura Furman, Series Editor
A Composer and His Parakeets
Ha Jin, Zoetrope
Other People's Deaths
Lore Segal, The New Yorker
Village 113
Anthony Doerr, Tin House
A Change in Fashion
Steven Millhauser, Harper's Magazine
The Transitional Object
Sheila Kohler, Boulevard
On the Lake
Olaf Olafsson, Zoetrope
Taiping
Brittani Sonnenberg, xconnect
What Do You Want to Know For?
Alice Munro, The American Scholar
The Necessity of Certain Behaviors
Shannon Cain, New England Review
A Game of Cards
Rose Tremain, The Paris Review
Touch
Alexi Zentner, Tin House
Bad Neighbors
Edward P. Jones, The New Yorker
Every Move You Make
David Malouf, Granta
Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska
Tony Tulathimutte, The Threepenny Review
The Bullock Run
Roger McDonald, Mãnoa
Prison
Yiyun Li, Tin House
Bye-bye Natalia
Michel Faber, Granta
Folie à Deux
William Trevor, The New Yorker
The Little Boy
Mary Gaitskill, Harper's Magazine
A Little History of Modern Music
William H. Gass, Conjunctions
Reading The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on “Touch” by Alexi Zenter
David Leavitt on “What Do You Want to Know For?” by Alice Munro
David Means on “Folie à Deux” by William Trevor
Writing The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008
The Writers on Their Work
Recommended Stories 2008
Publications Submitted
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