The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007: The
Best Stories of the Year
Diverse Collection With Several Exceedingly Well-Crafted, Transcendent Stories
An arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories
explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the
insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices
sophisticated, cunning, or na•ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our
expectations. Selected from thousands of stories in hundreds of literary
magazines, the twenty prize-winning stories are accompanied by essays
from each of the three eminent jurors on which stories they judged the
best, and observations from all twenty prizewinners on what inspired them.
“The Room”
William Trevor

“The Scent of Cinnamon”
Charles Lambert
“Cherubs”
Justine Dymond
“Galveston Bay, 1826”
Eddie Chuculate
“The Gift of Years”
Vu Tran
“The Diarist”
Richard McCann
“War Buddies”
Joan Silber
“Djamilla”
Tony D’Souza
“In a Bear’s Eye”
Yannick Murphy

“Summer, with Twins”
Rebecca Curtis
“Mudder Tongue”
Brian Evenson
“Companion”
Sana Krasikov
“A Stone House”
Bay Anapol
“The Company of Men”
Jan Ellison
“City Visit”
Adam Haslett
“The Duchess of Albany”
Christine Schutt
“A New Kind of Gravity”
Andrew Foster Altschul

“Gringos”
Ariel Dorfman
“El Ojo de Agua”
Susan Straight
“The View from Castle Rock”
Alice Munro
Personal Review: The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007: The Best
Stories of the Year
Every year for the past 10+ years I have read both the O. Henry Prize
Stories anthology and The Best American Short Stories anthology. My
main complaint about O. Henry series editor Laura Furman has been her
tendency to pick stories which focus on loss, illness, death and other
depressing subjects. I won't be so bold as to claim she has read these
criticisms, but this year she did produce a much more well-rounded
selection of stories that more fully illustrate the possibilities of the short
story form. By doing so, she has come much closer to realizing the O.
Henry anthology's subtitle of "The Best Stories of the Year".
In fact, this volume contains the best story I have read in several years,
although the prize jury felt otherwise: Charles Lambert's "The Scent of
Cinnamon". While other stories in the anthology push the creative
boundaries of the short story form, Lambert's story is a classic short story
in the O. Henry mold, complete with a surprise revealed at the end that
adds a whole new dimension to what you have just read. The story is not
one word longer than it should be, and every word is meaningful and well-
chosen. The portrayal of longing amidst isolation is powerfully moving.
This story is a work of art which should be taught in schools as a model of
the form.
Two other very different stories that I also especially enjoyed are:
-- Eddie Chuculate's "Galveston Bay, 1826", which reads like a written-
down oral history of an Indian's journey across other tribes' lands in Texas
and the amazing sights and events that he encounters; and
-- Susan Straight's "El Ojo de Aqua", which describes the travails of an
elderly poor migrant black worker.

While everyone will have their own favorites, I do feel that editor Laura
Furman has assembled her strongest collection of stories to date. I highly
recommend this volume, and short stories in general, as they are the
perfect complements to a busy lifestyle. Even those folks with little time to
read should be able to find time on occasion to enjoy a well-written short
story, and this volume contains many.
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