The O. Henry Prize Stories 2016

Twenty unforgettable stories-the best of the year-by celebrated writers as well as new and emerging voices.

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2016 contains twenty prize-winning stories chosen from thousands published in literary magazines over the previous year. The winning stories range in setting from Japan at the outset of World War II to a remote cabin in the woods of Wyoming, and the characters that inhabit them range from a misanthropic survivor of an apocalyptic flood to a unicorn hidden in a suburban house. Whether fantastical or realistic, gothic or lyrical, the stories here are uniformly breathtaking. They 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.