Laura Furman

Each year, short story lovers eagerly anticipate two collections of stories: The Best American Short Stories collection published by Houghton Mifflin, and the O. Henry Prize Stories, edited by Laura Furman and published by Anchor. While the "Best American" series contains many worthy stories and authors (this year, the series editor is Salman Rushdie and the winners include Nicole Krauss, A.M. Homes, and Jonathan Lethem), the choices tend to be a bit more conventional than the O. Henry show more stories. For that reason, if I had to pick one short story anthology to read all year, I'd pick the O. Henry, if only to be introduced to writers whose work is unfamiliar to me. (There is a bit of crossover, since Alice Munro, unsurprisingly, turns up in both volumes, as does Steven Millhauser).

This year's series doesn't disappoint. The subjects range from a woman who joins a polyamorous society that she stumbled upon somewhere in an unspecified country outside the United States ("The Necessity of Certain Behaviors" by Sharon Cain) to a pre-teen growing up with her gruff, secretive father in a remote part of America ("Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska," by first-time author Tony Tulathimutte) to a composer whose unwilling babysitting for his girlfriend's bird brings unexpected benefits to his art ("A Composer and His Parakeets," by Ha Jin). The narrative forms also vary widely -- we get conventional narrative; a couple of stories written as a series of scenes; and another story that contains no characters at all, save the bizarre, baroque dresses designed by a mysterious fashion designer calling himself "Hyperion" ("A Change in Fashion" by Steven Millhauser, which, thanks to its strange flights of fancy, is at turns the most intriguing and most frustrating story in the collection.)

While not all the stories make a hugely favorable impression ("Bye Bye Natalia," by Michael Faber, about a Russian, HIV-positive mail-order bride, is a bit forced and obvious in spots), there's not a real dud in the lot. Some, like Rose Tremain's little jewel "A Game of Cards," stun with their ability to convey so much truth in such a compact package. Alexi Zentner's "Touch" and Olaf Olafsson's "On the Lake" also deserve special mention for their extraordinarily controlled and beautiful tone -- you find yourself almost holding your breath while reading, for fear you'll break the spell.

If you love short stories -- heck, if you even like short stories -- pick this one up. show less

I really enjoy the O. Henry Prize Stories series. At least in the awards' current form, the work chosen is much less concerned with setting standards for a theoretical short story canon than showcasing a range of up-to-the-minute fiction and offering a snapshot of what interests contemporary writers at a given time. In this batch, the majority of the 20 featured stories build on how identity—social, racial, cultural, familial, sexual, and otherwise—forms and shifts... maybe that's all show more short stories, but the combination of varied cultures, eras, and experiences throws that area of exploration into slightly sharper relief. And as with previous installments in the series, this one was uneven in parts but never boring.

Standouts for me: Tessa Hadley's "Funny Little Snake," Sarah Hall's "Goodnight Nobody," Weike Wang's "Omakase," Caolinn Hughes's "Prime," Souvankham Thammavongsa's "Slingshot." show less

The stories here skew dark: young folks in peril, missing and dead parents, snake handlers, and guns figure prominently in four out of 19 (and slightly less so in at least a couple of others).

In the judges' discussion of their favorite stories at the back of the book, Tash says, in reference to Mark Haddon's "The Gun," "You never know exactly how to react, for there's never a comfort zone." And I'd extend that to most of the stories in the collection. In a good way, mind you—I loved how show more off-kilter so many of them were. This was a fun collection, even by O. Henry standards, which tend to be weird and good as it is.

I thought Kristen Iskandrian's "The Inheritors" was absolutely outstanding, but I don't doubt there's a favorite for everyone in this collection. show less

Most of these stories have appeared in other "best-of" collections covering the same time period; in particular there's a ton of overlap with Best American Short Stories 2009. Even skipping the ones I'd already read, this was a slog. The contributor's comments in the back are interesting, but the jurors' comments are surprisingly brief and generic-seeming to me. Maybe there really are only 30 or 35 really great short stories published in a given year, but I hate to think that, and I hate to show more think that if it's true, these are they. (The Adiche, Galgut, and Munro stories are exceptions; though I love Brad Watson, I think the story of his that was chosen isn't one of his better recent stories.) show less