Short Story Prize

Ploughshares is pleased to share a sneak peek of Tommy Orange’s introduction to this year’s Best Short Stories: The O. Henry Prize Winners anthology, which publishes September 29, 2026. The anthology, edited by Orange, features new work by former guest editor Colm Tóibín, and past contributors Jenny Xie, Weike Wang, and Kevin Wilson. Writing fiction for me started with the short story. This was about…