Prize Stories 1986: The O. Henry Awards

Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious award for short fiction. -The Atlantic Monthly

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1986 collects 19 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The 1986 winning story is Alice Walker’s Kindred Spirits, which profiles a young African-American woman after her divorce from her white husband. A Special Award for Continuing Achievement is given to Joyce Carol Oates for Master Race that narrates a shocking of a sexual assault in Germany. Other stories include:

Stuart Dybek Pet Milk

Greg Johnson Crazy Ladies

John L'Heureux The Comedian

Joyce R. Kornblatt Offerings

Ward Just The Costa Brava, 1959

Peter Meinke Uncle George and Uncle Stefan

Bobbie Anne Mason Big Bertha Stories

Merrill Joan Gerber ‘I Don’t Believe This’

Gordon Lish Resurrection

Peter Cameron Excerpts from Swan Lake

Alice Adams Molly’s Dog

Deborah Eisenberg Transaction in a Foreign Currency

Anthony DiFranco The Garden of Redemption

Jeanne Wilmot Dirt Angel

Elizabeth Spencer The Cousins

Irvin Faust The Year of the Hot Jock

Stephanie Vaughn Kid MacArthur