Prize Stories, the Best of 1998: The O. Henry Awards

One or two were amazing, and most were good, but I wasn't crazy about the somewhat snotty ("we're all so well-read and a good STORY doesn't matter") attitude of the editor, which showed through in the selection.

Though I majored in English, I never took a creative writing course while in college. When I started writing fiction a few years ago, I knew that I couldn't enter an MFA program because I'm a full-time attorney with a family to feed and a mortgage to pay. So, I decided that I should read as much fiction as possible to help teach myself the craft of writing. One of the books I purchased was the then-new 1998 Prize Stories: The O'Henry Awards. I couldn't have made a better choice! In this one volume, I read Lorrie Moore's heartbreaking "People Like That Are the Only People Here," Steven Millhauser's chilling "The Knife Thrower," Alice Munro's evocative "The Children Stay," among many other wonderful and powerful fiction from The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, Harper's, and others. Larry Dark, the series editor, and the prize jury, Andrea Barrett, Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody, did a wonderful job pulling together the best short fiction of that year. This collection not only gave me great joy as a reader, but also wonderful lessons in the art and craft of fiction writing.

Excellent collection of cutting-edge short fiction. If you want to see the extreme edges of today's scene and what, hopefully, is the future of short fiction, buy this collection every year. Extremely compelling work, wide variety of styles, and not the same old names.

As an avid reader of the O.Henry series, I felt that it was in a bit of a rut until this new editor, Larry Dark came along. Last year and especially this year, the O. Henry has become exciting and cutting edge, and Dark must be given all the credit. C'est magnefique Monseiur Dark!!

If you are only able to read one book this year make it this book, I just want to thank you Mr.Dark for being the creative god that you are!