<i>The O. Henry Prize Stories 2014</i> gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The winning stories roam the world, from Nigeria to Venice, from an erupting volcano in Iceland to a brothel in the old Wild West. They feature a dazzling array of characters: a young American falling in love in Japan, a girl raised by snake-handling fundamentalists, an old man mourning his late wife, and a fierce guard dog with a talent for escape. Accompanying the stories are the editor’s introduction, essays from the eminent jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines.<br><br>Mark Haddon, “The Gun,” <i>Granta</i><br>Stephen Dixon, “Talk,” <i>The American Reader</i><br>Tessa Hadley, “Valentine,” <i>The New Yorker</i><br>Olivia Clare, “Pétur,” <i>Ecotone</i><br>David Bradley, “You Remember The Pin Mill,” <i>Narrative</i> <br>Kirstin Valdez Quade, “Nemecia,” <i>Narrativemagazine.com</i><br>Dylan Landis, “Trust,” <i>Tin House</i><br>Allison Alsup, “Old Houses,” <i>New Orleans Review</i><br>Halina Duraj, “Fatherland,” <i>Harvard Review</i><br>Chanelle Benz, “West of the Known,” <i>The American Reader </i><br>William Trevor, “The Women,” <i>The New Yorker</i><br>Colleen Morrissey, “Good Faith,” <i>The Cincinnati Review</i><br>Robert Anthony Siegel, “The Right Imaginary Person,” <i>Tin House</i><br>Louise Erdrich, “Nero,” <i>The New Yorker</i> <br>Rebecca Hirsch Garcia, “A Golden Light,” <i>Threepenny Review</i><br>Chinelo Okparanta, “Fairness,” <i>Subtropics</i><br>Kristen Iskandrian, “The Inheritors,” <i>Tin House </i><br>Michael Parker, “Deep Eddy,” <i>Southwest Review</i><br>Maura Stanton, “Oh Shenandoah,” <i>New England Review</i><br>Laura van den Berg, “Opa-Locka,” <i>The Southern Review</i><br><i> </i><br>The Jurors on Their Favorites: Tash Aw, James Lasdun, Joan Silber<br>The Writers on Their Work<br>Publications Submitted