The O. Henry Prize stories 2019 gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from the thousands published in literary magazines over the previous year. The collection includes essays by the three guest jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and a comprehensive resource list of the many magazines and journals, both large and small, that publish short fiction.

Combines excerpts from thirty-five twentieth-century memoirs, including the works of such notables as Russell Baker, James Baldwin, Margaret Mead, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Henry Adams