The Best Short Stories 2025

The O. Henry Prize Winners

By: Edward P. Jones, Jenny Minton Quigley

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, JD Jackson, Kaleo Griffith, Michelle H. Lee, Angel Pean, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Chandler Gregoire, Philip Hernandez, Ari Fliakos, Heni Zoutomou, Abigail Reno, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, Full Cast

The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by a diverse and exciting array of writers, including Wendell Berry, Alice Hoffman, Dave Eggers, Ling Ma, Lori Ostlund, and Anthony Marra.

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 Edward P. Jones has brought his own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Jones, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.

THE WINNING STORIES

“The Stackpole Legend,” Wendell Berry
“The Arrow,” Gina Chung
“That Girl,” Addie Citchens
“The Pleasure of a Working Life,” Michael Deagler
“Blackbirds,” Lindsey Drager
“Hearing Aids,” Clyde Edgerton
“Sanrevelle,” Dave Eggers
“Stump of the World,” Madeline ffitch
“Shotgun Calypso,” Indya Finch
“City Girl,” Alice Hoffman
“Sickled,” Jane Kalu
“The Spit of Him,” Thomas Korsgaard, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken
“Winner,” Ling Ma
“Countdown,” Anthony Marra
“Just Another Family,” Lori Ostlund
“Mornings at the Ministry,” Ehsaneh Sadr
“Rosaura at Dawn,” Daniel Saldaña París, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney
“Three Niles,” Zak Salih
“Strange Fruit,” Yah Yah Scholfield
“Miracle in Lagos Traffic,” Chika Unigwe

Critic reviews

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

Prize stories miss the mark

While the stories embrace diversity and have an international reach, this collection is not a favorite. I only liked two or three of the stories well enough to reread or re ommend. Stories are of inconsistent length and quality. Many of the stories are more about technique than story. Only a few resonate or are relatable.

Woke

Disappointing, overall. I believe it was a collection of diversity, inclusion, and equity (?). The return process is difficult.

Bad collection of stories with plots to nowhere

These stories felt over written and didn't have much plot to them - hard to believe these are the best of the best