After going back and forth on the idea for the last two months, I've decided to go ahead and review the stories in the 2018 O. Henry Award Short Story Anthology. This is the third of the three major anthologies a short story writer can get into, along with Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize. It's more similar to BASS in that O. Henry tends to pull from the major journals rather than look in unorthodox places like Pushcart does, and for that reason I've always just skipped it. I wasn't sure I'd have time to review all of it, since I've recently taken on some added responsibilities in my life. I'm still not 100% sure I'll get through all of it, which is why I've been reluctant to try--I didn't want a half done series of reviews to mock me for my inability to finish what I'd started. But after thinking about it, I'd rather at least try and fail then not try.
I'm pretty late reviewing these. The winners of the 2019 O. Henry awards have already been announced, and the new anthology comes out in the fall. The first story in the 2018 anthology was actually first published in Tin House before Trump was elected and before we all knew Tin House was shutting down. So this won't be the timeliest series of reviews, but I still think it's worth doing, if for no other reasons than for me to sharpen my skills at reviewing short stories, which I've discovered over the last two years I kind of like doing and might not be too bad at.
First review will be out tomorrow. Happy Independence Day.
I'm happy to hear you'll be reading/reviewing; I'm even happier to hear that you like doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt probably won't be as much fun, since you aren't doing it with me, but since I'm sort of starting to specialize in this stuff, I might as well follow it a little further to see where it goes.
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