A.M. Homes, Christine Schutt, and the must-read Manuel Muñoz edited this year's PEN/O. Henry Prize stories, selecting work from Chris Adrian, Kenneth Calhoun, Adam Foulds, Susan Minot, Lori Ostlund, Jim Shepard, Elizabeth Tallent, Lily Tuck, and Brad Watson, along with other emerging or underexposed authors. Either by design or happenstance, the collection omits all of the contemporary giants in short fiction, so this is your chance to become more familiar with some newer voices. Ostlund's story of an ex-pat lesbian couple's dissolving union while teaching English in Malaysia is smart and sad and funny, and it's not even the very best piece in her award-winning collection The Bigness of the World
[[Kindle
]].
Anyone interested in the next generation of short story giants should by now already own Colm Tóibín's amazing The Empty Family
[[Kindle
]] and Yiyun Li's terrific Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
[[Kindle]]. I'm also an ardent fan Manuel Muñoz's stories in The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, almost all of which are gay, whereas his elegant new novel, What You See in the Dark
, ripples outward from a tangle of straight relationships and a murder, and has earned stellar reviews.
Complete list of PEN/Prize stories after the jump.
Your Fate Hurtles Down at You by Jim Shepard
Diary of an Interesting Year by Helen Simpson
Melinda by Judy Doenges
Nightblooming by Kenneth Calhoun
The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kálmán Once Lived by Tamas Dobozy
Ice by Lily Tuck
How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capó Crucet
The Junction by David Means
Pole, Pole by Susan Minot
Alamo Plaza by Brad Watson
The Black Square by Chris Adrian
Nothing of Consequence by Jane Delury
The Rules Are the Rules by Adam Foulds
The Vanishing American by Leslie Parry
Crossing by Mark Slouka
Bed Death by Lori Ostlund
Windeye by Brian Evenson
Sunshine by Lynn Freed
Never Come Back by Elizabeth Tallent
Something You Can’t Live Without by Matthew Neill Null
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