The Best Short Stories 2023

The O. Henry Prize Winners

By: Jenny Minton Quigley, Lauren Groff - editor

Narrated by: Lauren Groff, Full Cast

The prestigious annual story anthology includes prize-winning stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, David Ryan, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Lisa Taddeo, Ling Ma, Catherine Lacey, and Cristina Rivera Garza.

“[A] standout collection . . . . Dazzling performances from some of today’s most exciting writers. . . . This is one of the best fiction anthologies in years.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Lauren Groff has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices and including several stories in translation. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Groff, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction. AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL.

THE WINNING STORIES:
“Office Hours,” by Ling Ma
“Man Mountain,” by Catherine Lacey
“Me, Rory and Aurora,” by Jonas Eika,
translated from the Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
“The Complete,” by Gabriel Smith
“The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," by Jamil Jan Kochai
“Wisconsin,” by Lisa Taddeo
“Ira & the Whale,” by Rachel B. Glaser
“The Commander’s Teeth,” by Naomi Shuyama-Gómez
“The Mad People of Paris,” Rodrigo Blanco Calderón,
translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead
“Snake & Submarine,” by Shelby Kinney-Lang
“The Mother,” by Jacob M’hango
“The Hollow,” by ’Pemi Aguda
“Dream Man,” by Cristina Rivera Garza,
translated from the Spanish by Francisca González-Arias
“The Locksmith,” by Grey Wolfe LaJoie
“After Hours at the Acacia Park Pool,” by Kirstin Valdez Quade
“Happy Is a Doing Word,” by Arinze Ifeakandu
“Elision,” by David Ryan
“Xífù,” by K-Ming Chang
“Temporary Housing,” by Kathleen Alcott
“The Blackhills,” by Eamon McGuinness

Critic reviews

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

I Listened to This Collection Twice!

I love this collection, The Best Short Stories 2023. I was lukewarm during the first hearing, but then I hit my stride toward the end. When I finished, I returned to the beginning and vacuumed all the details I had missed the first time. The stories are rich and imaginative, filled with memorable characters. It provided an abundance of humor. Lauren Groff did a superb job curating this collection.

I look forward to hearing more stories from these talented writers. I highly recommend this.

Every story is overwhelmingly melancholy.

I found each to be well written and well performed. However, this year the stories are notably more depressing, and unpleasant then the stories from previous years. I found the overall collection to be a real disappointment. Too bad.

I Had Hoped

I had hoped this volume of short stories would be as enjoyable as The Best Short Stories of 2024.

It wasn’t.

But then Amor Towles, the selector and editor for 2024’s anthology, is not simply another great author.

50/50 at best i.e., perhaps half of 2023’s winners were for me enjoyable. The remainder are forgettable or worse.

I won’t soon be trying earlier or later anthologies … unless drawn by the credibility of the selector / editor.