
The Best Short Stories 2023
The O. Henry Prize Winners
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Narrated by:
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Lauren Groff
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full cast
About this listen
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
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The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story
- By: John Freeman - editor
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the past 50 years, the American short story has changed dramatically. New voices, forms, and mixtures of genres have brought this unique US genre a thrilling burst of energy. This rich anthology celebrates this avalanche of talent. Beginning in 1970, it culls together a half century of powerful American short stories from all genres, including - for the first time in a literary anthology - science fiction, horror, and fantasy.
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Too dark for my taste
- By Lazy Chicken on 10-03-22
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The Best American Short Stories 2019
- By: Anthony Doerr, Heidi Pitlor
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff, Heidi Pitlor, Scott Shepherd, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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#1 New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anthony Doerr brings his“stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) to selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019. Doerr and the series editor, Heidi Pitlor, winnow down twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
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Another great year of Shorts
- By Michael on 01-19-24
By: Anthony Doerr, and others
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Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
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this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
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The Deluge
- By: Stephen Markley
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Gibson Frazier, and others
- Length: 40 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat.
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Couldn’t get into it.
- By Review Reviewer on 01-20-23
By: Stephen Markley
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- By: Junot Díaz
- Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Karen Olivo
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance is perfect
- By Alison on 02-27-18
By: Junot Díaz
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A People's Future of the United States
- Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers
- By: Victor LaValle - editor, John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Darrell Dennis, William DeMeritt, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and envision new futures for America - from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more.
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A bit brilliant, a little reactionary.
- By Thomas J Lee on 04-16-23
By: Victor LaValle - editor, and others
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Just an Ordinary Day
- Stories
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House - classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe - Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty. Soon after her untimely death in 1965, Jackson’s children discovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, many of which are brought together in this remarkable collection.
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Captures a Bygone Era
- By Anonymous User on 11-11-22
By: Shirley Jackson
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All over Creation
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Ozeki
- Narrated by: Ruth Ozeki
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Yumi Fuller hasn’t set foot in her hometown of Liberty Falls, Idaho—heart of the potato-farming industry—since she ran away at age fifteen. Twenty-five years later, the prodigal daughter returns to confront her dying parents, her best friend, and her conflicted past, and finds herself caught up in an altogether new drama. The post-millennial farming community has been invaded by Agribusiness forces at war with a posse of activists, the Seeds of Resistance, who travel the country in a camping car, “The Spudnick,” biofueled by pilfered McDonald’s french-fry oil.
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ozeki !!!
- By Leah on 01-03-25
By: Ruth Ozeki
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The Circus Train
- By: Amita Parikh
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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1938. Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo. Brilliant and curious, Lena—who uses a wheelchair after a childhood bout with polio—yearns for the real-world magic of science and medicine, her mind stronger than the limitations placed on her by society. Then her unconventional life takes an exciting turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with his own secrets and a mysterious past.
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Beautiful
- By Lisa M. Jolley on 03-19-23
By: Amita Parikh
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The Best American Short Stories 2025
- By: Celeste Ng, Nicole A. Lamy
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. Celeste Ng—Puschcart Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere—selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published this year.
By: Celeste Ng, and others
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50 Greatest Short Stories
- By: Terry O'Brien - editor, Terry O'Brien - introduction
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Deepti Gupta
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Selected from the best of the world's short fiction, 50 Great Short Stories brings together writings by great masters of the genre. Carefully picked for their timeless quality, listeners are sure to be delighted by the inclusion of such favourites as 'The Gift of the Magi', 'The Lady with the Dog', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Rain' and 'Mrs Packletide's Tiger', to name but a few.
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Very Disappointed
- By Nicole Singer on 12-14-18
By: Terry O'Brien - editor, and others
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Song of Solomon
- A Novel
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.
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Maybe a beautiful story, This author should never narrate
- By Student on 01-02-20
By: Toni Morrison
I look forward to hearing more stories from these talented writers. I highly recommend this.
I Listened to This Collection Twice!
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Every story is overwhelmingly melancholy.
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