"Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction."-The Atlantic Monthly

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1985 gathers 21 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines.

Stories include:
Jane Smiley "Lily" (first prize, jointly awarded)
Stuart Dybek "Hot Ice" (first prize, jointly awarded)
Ann Beattie "In the White Night"
Helen Norris "The Quarry"
Susan Minot "Lust"
Claude Koch "Bread and Butter Questions"
Wright Morris "Glimpse into Another Country"
Louise Erdrich "Saint Marie"
R. C. Hamilton "Da Vinci Is Dead"
Joseph McElroy "Daughter of the Revolution"
Steve Heller "The Crow Woman"
Ward Just "About Boston"
Tobias Wolff "Sister"
Gloria Norris "Holding On"
Peter Cameron "Homework"
Ilene Raymond "Taking a Chance on Jack"
Eric Wilson "The Axe, the Axe, the Axe"
Joyce Carol Oates "The Seasons"
Rolaine Hochstein "She Should Have Died Hereafter"
Josephine Jacobsen "The Mango Community"
John Updike "The Other"