Three Indian writers among Twenty O. Henry Prize winners

NEW YORK (TIP): The O. Henry Prize, fist awarded in 1918, accolades American and Canadian short stories of exceptional merit. The 99th O. Henry Prize winners were announced on May 26, and a group of twenty writers have been credited for their outstanding literary oeuvre.

Shruti Swamy

Amit Majumdar

Jai Chakrabarti

The O. Henry Prize winners this year include three writers of Indian origin Shruti Swamy, Indian-American nuclear radiologist Amit Majumdar, and Jai Chakrabarti, who is A Public Space Emerging Writer’s Fellow. While Shruti Swamy lives and writes in San Francisco, and has her stories published in Black Warrior Review, New American Writing, The Kartika Review, Amit Majumdar is Ohio’s fist poet laureate, an author of two novels and several poetry collections. Jai Chakrabarti hails from Calcutta who currently lives in Brooklyn and writes poetry, fiction, and mathematical algorithms. Celebrated Bangladeshi author Tahmima Anam is also one of the winners. Tahmima Anam writes from London and has been the recipient of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize along with other acclamations.

Edited by writer Laura Furman, and judged by authors Elizabeth McCracken, Brad Watson, and David Bradley, the 2017 O. Henry Prize Stories anthology will be published by Anchor Books in September this year and according to its website, it will include, “essays by the three eminent 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.”

Here is a list of the winning stories and their writers:

  • “Too Good To Be True” by Michelle Huneven (Harper’s)
  • “Something for a Young Woman” by Genevieve Plunkett (New England Review)
  • “The Buddhist” by Alan Rossi (Granta)
  • “Garments” by Tahmima Anam (Freeman’s)
  • “Protection” by Paola Peroni (The Common)
  • “Night Garden” by Shruti Swamy (Prairie Schooner)
  • “A Cruelty” by Kevin Barry (Five Points)
  • “Floating Garden” by Mary La Chapelle (Salamander)
  • “The Trusted Traveler” by Joseph O’Neill (Harper’s)
  • “Blue Dot” by Keith Eisner (Salamander)
  • “Lion” by Wil Weitzel (Prairie Schooner)
  • “Paddle to Canada” by Heather Monley (Zyzzyva)
  • “A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness” by Jai Chakrabarti (A Public Space)
  • “The Bride and the Street Party” by Kate Cayley (Prism)
  • “Secret Lives of the Detainees” by Amit Majmudar (Kenyon Review)
  • “Glory” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Harper’s)
  • “Mercedes Benz” by Martha Cooley (A Public Space)
  • “The Reason Is Because” by Manuel Munoz (American Short Fiction)
  • “The Family Whistle” by Gerard Woodward (Zoetrope)
  • “Buttony” by Fiona McFarlane (The New Yorker)

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