The O. Henry Prize Collection / The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018

Introduction

The subject matter of the twenty stories in The O. Henry Prize Stories is so varied that even naming it feels reductive: a violent home invasion, an illiterate writer of letters from the dead, a retrospective homage to a failed marriage, an inconspicuous man in a very small town who bears witness to the great world s horrors.

It becomes second nature for passionate readers to identify and consider the elements of fiction: plot, language, characters, setting. Subject matter seems like the most obvious one, yet is perhaps the least important in the long run. While an interesting subject might initially attract readers, it won t keep them there unless the formal elements are in balance.

For the author, subject matter is more complicated. Each element of a story can seem to have its own notion of its importance, so that the writer often feels in control of nothing. Add to this the fact that a writer can start with one idea of what the story is about and end by realizing that it s about something else entirely. Many authors say that they write to understand their own lives, so that even when a writer thinks she s creating a unique, completely invented character, she isn t surprised to recognize someone she knows lurking in the portrait or even herself.

Nothing matters in the end except the story itself.

After you have completed a story in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018, you might find you have two different answers to the questions What is the subject matter? and What is the heart of the story? And if you turn to Writing The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018, you can see what answers the authors themselves have to offer.

Jo Ann Beard s The Tomb of Wrestling is spectacular in the fullest sense of the word: at once a spectacle and an impressive artistic achievement. Jurors Fiona McFarlane and Elizabeth Tallent chose The Tomb of Wrestling as their favorite story (pp. 347 and 350).

Here s a story in which subject matter and plot march with locked

Laura Furman, series editor of The O. Henry Prize Stories since 2003, is the winner of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts for her fiction. The author of several books, including the story collection The Mother Who Stayed, she taught writing for many years at the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Central Texas.

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

"This year s twenty O. Henry Prize Stories place the poetic qualities of the short story on full display." --The New Criterion

"The latest installment of the storied short fiction prize volume . . . [is] a strong collection of first-rate work without a false note. Essential for students of the form." --Kirkus Reviews