Instead, I’ll say that each of these stories had to pass a few rigorous tests, the first and most important of which was that they had to show some sort of thrill or risk in terms of language or structure or plot or enigma something in the story had to deliver a sharp blue jolt of electricity to my nervous system. I wonder, however, if this practice risks minimizing or simplifying the appeal of deeply complex stories like those that are found in this anthology, each of which is excellent in multiple, and sometimes even contradictory, ways. I know it is the custom for the writers of such introductions to shout out each contribution by name with a compliment, perhaps a way of justifying for a large audience choices that are so deeply individual and subjective. I could have selected five times as many great stories and made five equally marvelous books alas, I could only choose twenty stories for this year’s anthology.īut, oh, what brilliant stories these are. It has been a delight to revel in short stories the past several months, to read hundreds upon hundreds, written by people from all over the world, with so many exquisite voices and so many idiosyncratic understandings of what a short story is and what the form can be stretched to do. Henry Prize series editor Jenny Minton Quigley asked me to be this year’s guest judge, I must have terrified her by responding in enthusiastic all-caps within thirty seconds of her invitation. The story form is infinitely malleable, gorgeously economical, and endlessly surprising it is long enough to lose oneself in, short enough to deliver a satisfying gut punch. I love the short story form with a wild-eyed passion, the fervor of a street-corner evangelist who dresses up in robes to shout at pedestrians about angels and harlots and the seven-headed beast of the end of days.īut short stories are, to me, closer to the dawn of days they are quick, breathtaking windows into other humans’ souls, which is where the infinite resides, in my personal credo. If heaven exists, it must exist in the form of a clean and quiet house, a comfortable chair near a snoring dog, a glass of cold wine, and a lapful of short stories.
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