Literary award · United States · since 1919

O. Henry Award

American award for short stories. Established 1919 in United States.

About O. Henry Award

The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines. Along with The Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize Stories is one of the two "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction." Until 2002 there were first, second, and third prize winners and from 2003 to 2019 there were three jurors who each selected a short story of special interest or merit; the collection is called The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and the original collection was called Prize Stories 1919: The O. Henry Memorial Awards.

From the Wikipedia article “O. Henry Award”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2022Michel Nieva—
2021Karina Sainz Borgo—
2021Emma Cline—
2021Anthony Doerr—
2018Ottessa Moshfegh—
2018Elizabeth Tallent—
2017Michelle Huneven—
2017Lesley Nneka Arimah—
2017Amit Majmudar—
2017Fiona McFarlane—
2016Frederic Tuten—
2015Dina Nayeri—
2015Elizabeth McCracken—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the O. Henry Award for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data