The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015
Page 41
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Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine, and is the author of four books of fiction. Amy and Isabelle won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and also the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize in England and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She is also the author of Abide with Me and Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009, and most recently The Burgess Boys, nominated for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. She lives in New York City.
Emma Törzs, “Word of Mouth”
Here is the order in which some of the elements of this story came together, over about a year of writing it on and off.
1. I had a job, finally, at a new restaurant called—well, it wasn’t called the Whole Hog, but aside from that, the first paragraph of the story is completely true. I waitressed three months at a barbecue restaurant doomed for failure, and many strange things happened to me there, none of which made it into this story. I took the setting only, how beautiful it was and how absurd.
2. I was (am) fascinated by the idea of the “missing girl.” But what had happened to mine? Answering this question was one of the main thematic challenges in the story and I went back and forth a lot. In one draft she was eaten by a mountain lion.
3. My friend told me about a landlady he’d had, whose situation I stole for Miranda nearly in its entirety. The real Miranda was a pianist and woke my friend playing concertos on the piano in the living room, and in fact it was this detail that most impressed me, and that I most wanted to use in a story, but the piano ended up a clumsy metaphor for God-knows-what and was cut.
4. The grandmother appeared only in the final draft. I knew the narrator had “run” from something, and through much of the writing I was hoping I could get away with being mysteriously vague about what exactly she’d run from. But more often than not, vagueness is just an amateur attempt at creating tension, and in order to finish the story I knew I had to decide what exactly had happened to my narrator. Enter Grandma.
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Emma Törzs was born in Massachusetts in 1987 and received her MFA from the University of Montana, Missoula. Her stories have appeared in journals such as Ploughshares, The Cincinnati Review, Narrative, and Salt Hill. She teaches and waits (tables) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Vauhini Vara, “I, Buffalo”
When I first moved to San Francisco after college, more than ten years ago, I was captivated by the city’s beauty. I liked to take long walks and, on one of these walks, came across the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park. Bison! In the middle of a city! What? I tried, back then, to write a story about a girl who takes walks around San Francisco; I sent her to the bison paddock, among other favorite places of mine. The problem was that nothing much happened in the story. Years later, in graduate school, I was working on a new story about a woman, Sheila, whose life is falling apart. Sheila happened to live in San Francisco, and when I thought about how she might fill her days, after having lost her job, I remembered the earlier protagonist’s trip to the bison paddock and thought it was exactly the sort of thing Sheila would do. I didn’t realize until later that the experience would end up at the emotional center of “I, Buffalo.”
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Vauhini Vara was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada, and was raised mostly in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and in suburbs of Oklahoma City and Seattle. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her short stories have been published in ZYZZYVA, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. She writes for the website of The New Yorker and was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade. Her journalism has been anthologized in Dogfight at the Pentagon, a collection of page 1 features from the Journal. She lives in Colorado.
Publications Submitted
Stories published in American and Canadian magazines are eligible for consideration for inclusion in The O. Henry Prize Stories. Stories must be written originally in the English language. No translations are considered. Sections of novels are not considered. Editors are asked not to nominate individual stories. Stories may not be submitted by agents or writers.
Editors are invited to submit online fiction for consideration, but such submissions must be sent to the address on the next page in the form of a legible hard copy. The publication’s contact information and the date of the story’s publication must accompany the submissions.
Because of production deadlines for the 2016 collection, it is essential that stories reach the series editor by July 1, 2015. If a finished magazine is unavailable before the deadline, magazine editors are welcome to submit scheduled stories in proof or manuscript. Publications received after July 1, 2015, will automatically be considered for The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017.
Please see our website, www.ohenryprizestories.com, for more information about submission to The O. Henry Prize Stories.
The address for submission is:
Laura Furman, Series Editor, The O. Henry Prize Stories
The University of Texas at Austin
English Department, B5000
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712
The information listed on the following pages was up-to-date when The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 went to press. Inclusion in this listing does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by The O. Henry Prize Stories or Anchor Books.
Alimentum
PO Box 210028
Nashville, TN 37221
Paulette Licitra, editor
editor@alimentumjournal.com
alimentumjournal.com
as of 2014, online with continuous publication of new material
Amoskeag
School of Arts and Sciences
Southern New Hampshire University
2500 North River Road
Manchester, NH 03106
Benjamin Nugent, editor
b.nugent@snhu.edu
amoskeagjournal.com [website is no longer active]
annual
Bellevue Literary Review
NYU Langone
Department of Medicine
550 First Avenue, OBV-A612
New York, NY 10016
Danielle Ofri, editor
info@BLReview.org
BLReview.org
semiannual
Border Crossing
Lake Superior State University
650 West Easterday Avenue
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
Julie Brooks Barbour, Mary McMyne, Jillena Rose, editors
bordercrossing@lssu.edu
lssu.edu/bc
annual
China Grove
Lucius Lampton, editor
chinagrovepress@gmail.com
chinagrovepress.com
semiannual
CutBank
University of Montana
English Department, LA 133
Missoula, MT 59812
Allison Linville, editor
editor.cutbank@gmail.com
cutbankonline.org
semiannual
Dappled Things
Meredith McCann, editor
dappledthings.editor@gmail.com
dappledthings.org
quarterly
Eleven Eleven
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Hugh Behm-Steinberg, editor
elevenelevenjournal.com
semiannual
Fairy Tale Review
Department of English
Modern Languages Building
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Kate Bernheimer, editor
fairytalereview.com
annual
Fiction River
WMG Publishing
PO Box 269
Lincoln City, OR 97367
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, editors
ficti
onriver.com
semimonthly
Fourteen Hills
Department of Creative Writing
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132
Heather June Gibbons, editor
14hills.net
semiannual
Free State Review
3637 Black Rock Road
Upperco, MD 21155
Hal Burdett, J. Wesley Clark, Barrett Warner, Raphaela Cassandra, editors
editors@freestatereview.com
freestatereview.com
semiannual
Grain Magazine
PO Box 67
Saskatoon, SK S7K 3K1
Canada
grainmag@skwriter.com
grainmagazine.ca/about
quarterly
Harper’s Magazine
666 Broadway, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Ellen Rosenbush, editor
harpers@harpers.org
harpers.org
monthly
Image
3307 Third Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119
Gregory Wolfe, editor
image@imagejournal.org
imagejournal.org
quarterly
Little Patuxent Review
PO Box 6084
Columbia, MD 21045
Steven Leyva, editor
editor@littlepatuxentreview.org
littlepatuxentreview.org
semiannual
Lumina (print)/Lux (multimedia edition)
Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way
Bronxville, NY 10704
Jessica Denzer, editor
lumina@gm.slc.edu
luminajournal.com
annual
MĀNOA
Department of English
University of Hawai’i
1733 Donaghho Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Frank Stewart, editor
mjournal-l@lists.hawaii.edu
manoajournal.hawaii.edu
semiannual
Mid-American Review
Department of English, BGSU
Bowling Green OH 43403
Abigail Cloud, editor
casit.bgsu.edu/midamericanreview
semiannual
Midwestern Gothic
Midwestern Gothic/MG Press
PO Box 3447
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Jeff Pfaller, Robert James Russell, editors
info@midwestgothic.com
midwestgothic.com
quarterly
Mississippi Review
118 College Drive #5144
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
Andrew Malan Milward, editor
msreview@usm.edu
usm.edu/mississippi-review/index.html
semiannual
New Ohio Review
English Department 360 Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Jill Allyn Rosser, editor
noreditors@ohio.edu
ohio.edu/nor
semiannual
Oxford American
PO Box 3235
Little Rock, AR 72203-3235
Roger D. Hodge, editor
editors@oxfordamerican.org
oxfordamerican.org
quarterly
Poets and Artists
GOSS183
604 Vale Street
Bloomington, IL 61701
Didi Menendez, editor
didimenendez@gmail.com
poetsandartists.com
published 6–8 times a year
Prairie Schooner
123 Andrews Hall
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0334
Kwame Dawes, editor
prairieschooner@unl.edu
prairieschooner.unl.edu
quarterly
Printers Row
Chicago Tribune
435 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Jennifer Day, editor
jeday@tribune.com
chicagotribune.com/printersrow
weekly
PRISM international
Creative Writing Program
University of British Columbia
Buchanan E462
1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Canada
Nicole Boyce, editor
prismprose@gmail.com
prismmagazine.ca
quarterly
Raritan
31 Mine Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Jackson Lears, editor
rqr@rci.rutgers.edu
raritanquarterly.rutgers.edu
quarterly
Redivider
Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing
Emerson College
120 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Pamela Painter, editor
fiction@redividerjournal.org
redividerjournal.org
semiannual
Red Rock Review
English Department, J2A
College of Southern Nevada
3200 East Cheyenne Avenue
North Las Vegas, NV 89030
Todd Moffett, editor
redrockreview@csn.edu
sites.csn.edu/english/redrockreview/index.htm
semiannual
Relief
Brad Fruhauff, editor
editor@reliefjournal.com
reliefjournal.com
Salamander
Suffolk University
English Department
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108
Jennifer Barber, editor
salamandermag.org
semiannual
Salmagundi Magazine
Skidmore College
Attn: Salmagundi Journal
815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Robert Boyers, editor
salmagun@skidmore.edu
skidmore.edu/salmagundi
quarterly
Scribendi
c/o UNM Honors College
MSC06 3890
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Jordan Burk, editor
scribendi@unm.edu
scribendi.unm.edu
annual
Sheepshead Review
UW–Green Bay
Attn: Sheepshead Review
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
Roberto Rodriguez, editor
sheepsheadreview@uwgb.edu
blog.uwgb.edu/sheepsheadreview
Slice
Beth Blachman, editor
editors@slicemagazine.org
slicemagazine.org
semiannual
Southern Humanities Review
Department of English
Auburn University
9088 Haley Center
Auburn, AL 36849-5202
Chantel Acevedo, editor
shr@auburn.edu
southernhumanitiesreview.com
quarterly
Southern Indiana Review
Orr Center, #2009
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Boulevard
Evansville, IN 47712
Ron Mitchell, editor
usi.edu/sir
semiannual
Sou’wester
Department of English
Box 1438
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Edwardsville, IL 62026-1438
souwester.org
semiannual
Southwest Review
Southern Metho
dist University
PO Box 750374
6404 Robert Hyer Lane, Room 307
Dallas, TX 75275-0374
Willard Spiegelman, editor
swr@smu.edu
smu.edu/southwestreview
quarterly
Subtropics
Department of English
University of Florida
PO Box 112075
4008 Turlington Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611-2075
David Leavitt, editor
subtropics@english.ufl.edu
english.ufl.edu/subtropics
triannual
The American Literary Review
PO Box 311307
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203-1307
Bonnie Friedman, editor
americanliteraryreview@gmail.com
americanliteraryreview.com
semiannual
The American Reader
Uzoamaka Maduka, editor
editors@theamericanreader.com
theamericanreader.com
semimonthly
The Antioch Review
PO Box 148
Yellow Springs, OH 45387
Robert S. Fogarty, editor
mkeyes@antiochreview.org
review.antiochcollege.org/antioch_review
quarterly
The Asian American Literary
Review
Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis and Gerald Maa, editors
editors@aalr.binghamton.edu
aalrmag.org
semiannual
The Briar Cliff Review
3303 Rebecca Street
Sioux City, IA 51104-2100
Tricia Currans-Sheehan, editor
tricia.currans-sheehan@briarcliff.edu
bcreview.org
annual