O. Henry Award facts for kids

The O. Henry Award is a special prize given every year in the United States for amazing short stories. It's named after a famous American short-story writer named O. Henry.

The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is a yearly collection of the twenty best short stories. These stories are chosen from magazines published in the U.S. and Canada. This collection, along with The Best American Short Stories, is one of the most well-known yearly books of short fiction.

Before 2002, there were first, second, and third place winners. From 2003 to 2019, three judges each picked a story they thought was very good. The collection is called The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. The very first collection in 1919 was called Prize Stories 1919: The O. Henry Memorial Awards.

History and How the Award Works

The O. Henry Award was first given out in 1919. It was started and paid for by the Society of Arts and Sciences.

Since 2021, a special guest editor chooses twenty short stories. Each of these stories becomes an O. Henry Prize story. Any story published in an American or Canadian magazine can be considered for the award. This includes stories that have been translated into English. The main goal of The O. Henry Prize Stories is to help the art of short story writing stay strong.

The current editor for The O. Henry Prize Stories is Jenny Minton Quigley. Many famous editors have worked on the series before her. There were no new books in the series in 1952, 1953, 2004, and 2020.

Working with PEN America

In 2009, the company that publishes The O. Henry Prize Stories, Anchor Books, teamed up with the PEN American Center. This group is now called PEN America. Because of this partnership, the series was renamed PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories.

Money earned from the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009 book went to PEN's Readers & Writers Program. This program sends well-known authors to schools that need extra help.

The 2009 collection included stories by many great writers. Some of the judges for that year were A. S. Byatt, Tim O'Brien, and Anthony Doerr. These authors had all won O. Henry Prizes in the past. The editor, Laura Furman, said that working with PEN was a "natural partnership."

First-Prize Winners (1919–2002)

Juror Favorites (2003–2019)

Guest Editors (2021–Present)

See also

In Spanish: Premio O. Henry para niños

• The Best American Short Stories